Marauders (Things We Lose Trilogy: Book 1)
by ClaryKate
Summary: Sirius Black arrives at Hogwarts for his sixth year, believing it will be no different to his past years of fun. But with the wizarding war currently gaining momentum, and his family becoming more involved in the anti-Muggle movement, he can't deny that things may become a little more difficult when his challenging home life threatens to breach the safety of the castle walls...
1. Marauders

**PLEASE NOTE: If any readers see this exact story on Wattpad, please know that it was originally posted to that site around two years ago (as of 2015), but has now been made available here because this site is solely focused on fanfics- which is great and better for my stories. I was/still am the author of this trilogy on both FF and Wattpad- it hasn't been copied from either site to the other by someone trying to take any works as their own. Just a notice so there is no confusion :)**

"Sirius, get down here this instant!" Sirius Black heard the shrill calls of his mother coming from downstairs. He rolled over in his bed and tried to shut out the noise, "Sirius, come down now! Your brother has been awake for an hour, why do find it so hard to come and eat breakfast at a reasonable hour?"

Sirius got out of his bed and dressed. His room was very different to any other in the Black family house. The walls were plastered with Gryffindor banners of red and gold, which covered most of the silk papered walls. He was the only Gryffindor in his family, who were all in the green and silver house of Slytherin. Other posters accompanied the banners, they had pictures of his favourite Quidditch team, the Tutshill Tornadoes, and muggle motorbikes, which Sirius put there especially to annoy his mother.

He wondered how many times she had tried to redecorate his room while he was at Hogwarts. He had put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of each and every one of the posters when he was thirteen, that was three years ago, and his mother still hadn't managed to do so much as to peel a corner off the bedroom wall.

Sirius headed down stairs for breakfast and found his mother, father and brother, Regulus, sitting in the large, grand-looking dining room.

"There you are, sit down and eat. I want to leave for Diagon Alley soon, and I will not wait around for you to lay about", Sirius's mother said as he walked in.

"Good morning to you as well, Mother", Sirius said with obvious sarcasm. He assumed that his Hogwarts letter had arrived, considering his mother's desire to go to Diagon Alley.

Sirius's family did not entirely like him. In fact they hated him, detested him, they thought there had never been a more good-for-nothing person in the Black family. Sirius hated them just as much as they hated him. The Black family was a pure-blood family, they were dark wizards and witches. Sirius, on the other hand, loathed dark magic and didn't care about how much magical blood someone had.

He was friends with a muggle born, a half blood, and a blood traitor. He did not think muggles and everyone else who was not a pure blood were filthy animals. These were mostly the reasons that his family hated him. If anyone half decent in the family was born, and they decided to marry someone who was not pure blood, or help someone who was already disowned, they would be disowned as well.

The Black family were all very wealthy, and lived in fancy houses and mansions throughout Britain, as well as a crazy old uncle called Marius who lived in a castle on a mountain somewhere in Russia, because, being a squib, had been disowned as a child. Sirius's father, Orion Black was the only male child in his family as he only had a sister named Lucretia, so when Sirius's grandfather died, he inherited the original Black family house, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The house was unplottable and had every protection charm on it so no muggles could ever find it. The house shared adjoined walls with Number Eleven and Thirteen. However, it could not be seen unless an occupant living there stood in front of it on the street. The house would then slide out from between Eleven and Thirteen and they could walk in.

Sirius and Regulus looked a lot like their father. Sirius was sixteen and Regulus was fourteen. They both had the same long, dark hair and grey eyes. They both had the good looks that most people of the pure blood families possessed. Sirius, though, was a lot more handsome than his brother, who was also shorter than Sirius had been at fourteen.

Sirius picked up some toast when his mother announced his O.W.L results and booklist had indeed arrived with the family owl, Vultoria.

"Here, open it so we can see how stupid you are", Regulus smirked as he threw an envelope across the table so that it almost landed in Sirius's porridge.

Sirius tore open the envelope, he was not that concerned, he was one of the cleverest students in Hogwarts, and his marks would be fine. There was his booklist and the usual reminder that term started on September the 1st, another piece of parchment was there, his results. They read:

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass Grades: Outstanding (O) Exceeds Expectations (E) Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades: Poor (P) Dreadful (D) Troll (T)

SIRIUS ORION BLACK HAS ACHIEVED:

Arithmancy: E

Astronomy: O

Care of Magical Creatures: E

Charms: O

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Divination: P

Herbology: O

History of Magic: P

Potions: O

Transfiguration: O

Sirius was happy with his marks, six Outstandings and eight O. all up. His ambition to become an Auror (some of his families' worst nightmare) could definitely become a reality. He had passed all the necessary subjects.

"Sirius, are you not going to show me your results?" Asked his father.

Sirius got up and walked over to the head of the table where his mother and father sat and set the parchment down on the table.

"Well..." his mother peered at his marks over his father's shoulder with a disdainful look on her face, "I suppose you have done reasonably well. I honestly have no idea why they insist on teaching you this rubbish, Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"I don't know, in case You-Know-Who decides he wants to do me in", Sirius said coolly.

Sirius snatched the parchment back and headed back down the long table to finish his toast in silence. You-Know-Who was, of course, Lord Voldemort. He had been in power for six years. He believed in the purification of the wizarding race and that pure blood wizards should rule over muggles.

The Black family were great supporters of this anti-muggle movement. It was only Sirius and a very few others in the family who were against Voldemort and his infamous followers; the Death Eaters.

Voldemort would go around killing and torturing muggles and muggle borns, or anyone who stood up to him. This actually gave Sirius a very good reason to be learning Defence Against the Dark Arts.

After breakfast, the House Elf, Kreacher, came to clear away. Kreacher shared the Black families' great dislike of all things good and nice, and Sirius. He purposely stood on Sirius's toes, who then hit him over the head and left the dining room before his mother realised what he had done. Sirius walked along the hallway and up the staircase where all the Black family House Elves' heads hung on little plaques. It was Sirius's Aunt Elladora who had started the tradition of beheading them when they got too old to carry tea trays.

Sirius continued up to his room on the topmost floor. Opposite his brother's room, which had a neatly hand written sign on it that said _Do Not Enter With-out the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black._

"Little prat", muttered Sirius as he walked into his own bedroom.

He started to dig through his wardrobe, pulling out his Hogwarts and Quidditch robes. He packed them in his school trunk, along with a motorcycle maintenance manual, everything except his broom. His parents didn't even know he owned a broom. He was Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and had been since his second year at Hogwarts, and had received a Thunderbow broom for his twelfth birthday, from his best friend, James Potter. Every holidays, James would take the broom to his home, so Sirius's parents had never seen the thing in their lives.

Sirius finished stuffing a pair of socks into the corner of his school trunk and sighed as he heard his mother call out to him.

"Sirius, come down now. We are leaving for Diagon Alley", shouted Sirius's mother from down the stairs as he rearranged one of his Gryffindor ties.

Sirius wound up the tie and threw it unceremoniously into the trunk, before getting up and moving downstairs.

His mother was standing in the hallway with Regulus, wearing her black traveling cloak which was fastened with an emerald encrusted broach in the shape of a serpent's head. An heirloom passed down from Sirius's grandmother, Melania, who, in her last days, had sent Sirius a giant spider in a box. He had thrown it out his bedroom window when it had attempted to bite his face off, which was not an odd thing for gifts from his family to try and do.

"Ah, there you are Sirius", She said, "Hold my arm".

Regulus obeyed and Sirius reluctantly followed, bracing himself for Side-Along Apparition. He felt a great force pushing against him from all sides as he was dragged into darkness. The extremely unpleasant sensation of what seemed to be like being forced through a thin pipe ended when Sirius felt his feet touch solid ground. He opened his eyes, which he had screwed shut, to see that he, Regulus and his mother had Apparated into the Middle of Diagon Alley. Sirius immediately let go of his mother's arm as his father appeared next to them, having just Apparated there himself.

Sirius looked around, Diagon Alley looked the same as it had for the past few years. There were notices and signs displaying safety measures to be taken against the Dark Arts, and the faces of wanted Death Eaters lashed out from yellowed posters. There were also little stalls lining the edges of the street, selling protective amulets and potion ingredients, none of which were very likely to work. Some of the shops had been closed, their owners in hiding from Voldemort. Other shops had been ransacked by the Death Eaters, the owners killed or captured. Just like Fernleafe's; Suppliers of Magical Plants, that had been up and running two years ago, before it was attacked. Wilkin Fernleafe was never seen again. Now the shop sat exactly the same way it had been the morning after the attack, with the windows shattered and the plants, now long dead, strewn all over the place, the dulling green paint peeling. No-one had come to clean up, the Ministry of Magic was too busy panicking about Voldemort. No-one had bought the shop either, there was not a particularly high market for businesses in Diagon Alley. Not that it was a bad place, no, that was Knocturn Alley. There were hardly any attacks there, although that may have been due to the fact that half the people there were Death Eaters themselves, as well as others who supported Voldemort.

Sirius, with his parents and Regulus, went around to buy his school supplies. First, they went to Flourish and Blotts to get his and his brother's new text books. They then went to Twillfitts and Tattings to buy Regulus some new dress robes. Sirius refused anything his mother suggested for him, opting for his Muggle clothing, rather than the ugly and sullen looking dress robes she found so suiting for a young wizard of his blood status. The family of four did make their way into the apothecary, but stocks were very low, meaning there was no unicorn horn for Sirius to use in Potions.

Once they had finished in Diagon Alley, Sirius's mother led them into Knocturn Alley. Sirius tried to slip away and go back to Diagon Alley to look in Quality Quidditch Supplies, but was spotted turning the corner. After his third attempt, and his father grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and moving in front of the others, he gave up and went with them.

"I have to get something from Borgin and Burkes", said his mother, "While I'm there, I don't want any trouble from you, Sirius".

"Oh, okay, and while I'm there do want Regulus to teach me how to tie my shoes and use a knife and fork?" Sirius knew he was pushing his luck by saying this, but he was always treated second best to his brother, "Although, I doubt he's smart enough to teach anyone how to even count to three."

"Sirius, don't you dare speak to you mother like that!" Sirius's father raised his hand in warning, and Sirius fell quiet.

He always got this from his parents, being treated as if Regulus was a perfect angel and he was a badly behaved pet, although, he thought the pet might get treated better than him, at least Kreacher did, anyway. This wasn't half as bad as when his father was feeling particularly nasty and used very painful curses on him for using magic away from Hogwarts when he caught him. Of course, it would be normal to punish him for that, but not the way he did. After his father found him trying to light a Filibuster's firework in Regulus's room, his knee joints had never been the same since. Sometimes he thought they were still a little backwards looking.

They stopped outside an old, shabby building. The sign said: _Borgin and Burkes, Sellers of Rare Magical Artefacts Since 1854_. By 'Rare Magical Artefacts', Sirius knew they meant dangerous objects for the use in dark magic, or home wears that liked to bite or do very sinister things to people. In other words, this shop sold things that his parents would undoubtedly take a liking to.

His father gave him a threatening look before leading his family into the shop.

A rustling noise came from behind a large vanishing cabinet and the shop owner, Borgin, stepped out from his dusting.

"How may I help you, Mr and Mrs Black?" he asked in a greasy voice.

"I am here to collect the order I placed prior", said Sirius's mother in an exceptional display of disdain.

"Yes, of course madam", snivelled Borgin, "If you will please step this way".

"Don't touch anything, Sirius," his mother instructed before following Borgin and Sirius's father up to the counter.

Sirius looked around the shop. There was a jar of shrunken heads, a large crystal ball painted like an eye, and a showcase of little bottles filled with what was most likely some of the deadliest poisons known to wizard kind. He noticed Regulus examining a shrivelled old hand on a wooden plaque.

"What's that you're looking at, something to keep you company while you're at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked him.

"Very funny, but I have friends, no this is something else, and it's none of your business", Regulus replied haughtily.

"Think it will help you get in the Death Eaters' good books, do you", Sirius said coolly, "Think it will get you a chance to join the inner circle of Voldemort's?"

"Don't say his name!" Regulus whispered urgently.

"Why? Are you frightened, Regulus?" asked Sirius, sneering at his brother, "Are you frightened of the man you want as a master for the rest of your life? Some way to live, that is."

"Being part of the Dark Lord's forces would be a far better way to live than to die fighting him, which is where you're heading", said Regulus, moving closer to his brother, speaking quietly.

"Why? Why don't you see how it's wrong? How it's wrong to kill people for the reasons Voldemort does?" asked Sirius, he was trying to sway his brother's view, as he had tried many times, "Is it because our mother and father are feeding you all these stupid lies? About Pureblood supremacy, and- and-"

Sirius's search for the right words ended abruptly as his parent came towards the two brothers from where they had been standing at the counter.

"Come, both of you", their mother demanded, and Regulus followed obediently, looking back at Sirius with a troubled look on his face.

Sirius had been trying to change his brother's mind about Voldemort for the past two years. Regulus was only fourteen, and he was already certain that he wanted to join the dark side in the wizarding war. But Sirius remembered his brother from when they were young. Regulus had been his friend and play-mate. Regulus was not a bad person, but he had been told many evil lies by his mother and father, and had believed them far too quickly for Sirius's liking.

Sirius stared at the back of his brother's dark head and thought about this, as his parents lead them back into Diagon Alley and Dissaparated.

##

That evening, Sirius was reading his motorbike manual in the secluded and empty drawing room when his mother came in. She looked surprised to see him there, as if he was something nasty a cat might leave on someone's doorstep. She seemed to decide that it was best to ignore him and that he might just disappear. Sirius was happy to go back to the chapter on basic mechanical maintenance and ignore his mother as she ignored him. He did, however, take interest when he saw she was holding the parcel she had got from Borgin and Burkes.

He watched over the top of his book as his mother unwrapped it. The brown paper came away to reveal a large rectangular box, the kind you might keep envelopes in. It was made from what looked like silver. It had a row of teeth like spikes along the edge of the lid, and Sirius could only imagine what they would be for as his mother set the box down on a little side table and walked out.

Sirius's curiosity got the better of him and he crossed the room to look at it. The box was ornately decorated with carvings of snakes and dragons. He noticed the spikes were razor sharp and decided he wouldn't use his hands to open it.

He quickly ran downstairs to the kitchen. His dinner was bubbling away on the fire while Kreacher was off cleaning. Sirius crept over to the bench where he saw a wooden spoon lying there. He snatched it up and stuffed it inside his jacket before proceeding back upstairs to the box.

Sirius took out the wooden spoon and prodded the box. The lid opened a little then snapped shut. He put the spoon under the lid and flipped it open. He fell over when he saw what was inside. He got back up and looked into the bottomless pit of blue fire that resided within the box. He dropped the wooden spoon in. It did not hit the bottom of the box but fell all the way into the fire.

"Enlargement charm I s'pose", Sirius said as he watched a little cloud of ash fly out of the box before the lid snapped shut, almost taking his hand off.

The box would come in handy. Especially when he got letters from school for using magic at home.

That night, dinner was an interesting event; Kreacher seemed to have lost his precious wooden spoon. He had to use and old ladle and was in a very bad mood. Sirius on the other hand, found it very funny and was trying hard not to have soup spray out his nose from laughing.

After dinner Kreacher openly accused Sirius of spoon theft. Sirius ran from the dining room before his father could hex him and went upstairs to bed. He was excited, tomorrow he could get out of his parents' horrible house and back to his friends and Hogwarts.

##

"Master Sirius, you must wake up. Kreacher's mistress wants you downstairs", a small croaky voice was shouting into Sirius's ear and someone was tugging on his sleeve.

"Wha-", Sirius looked down to see Kreacher standing next to his bed jumping up and down, and telling him to wake up, "I'm up, I'm up".

Sirius shoved the elf out of the room, "Yes, yes, I'm awake now", and under his breath, "And tell the old hag that she can stop sending her House Elf creeping around my room".

He got dressed and headed down to breakfast.

"Sirius, be quick. We need to reach the train by today, thank you", his mother greeted him in the usual manner.

He bolted down some toast for breakfast, and before he had time to brush the crumbs off his shirt, his mother had swept him and Regulus out into the hallway. They all went up to the finest and most spacious dining room, which had the largest fire place. Their trunks were waiting, set against the wall, along with a handsome barn owl, which belonged to Regulus, and was named Lokin.

Sirius's father took a small chest off the mantel piece and opened it. The substance inside resembled a greenish coloured ash. He pinched some out and threw it in the fire. The fire turned a bright green and crackled loudly.

"Sirius, you go first", he demanded, "And I want to see you waiting for us out the other end".

"Fat chance of that", Sirius said quietly as he took his trunk stepped into the fire. It tickled his feet but did not burn him. He shouted, "Platform nine and three quarters".

He started to spin, around and around. Different fire places flick across his field of vision while he tried to keep his elbows from hitting the bricks that surrounded him. Suddenly, he stopped and he stumbled out onto platform nine and three quarters.

Most witches and wizards entered Kings Cross Station to gain access to Platform nine and three quarters. However, there were two relatively unused fire places that had been built in the earlier days of the platform's creation, to cater for those who did not wish to walk through a station packed with Muggles.

Sirius set off at a fast walk, away from the platform fire places. He had no intention of staying to wait for his family. They really shouldn't have trusted him to stay there. A magnificent scarlet steam engine sat on the tracks beside the platform, waiting for young witches and wizards, to take them to their common destination, it was the Hogwarts Express.

Sirius searched through the crowd looking for his friends. He stopped when he saw over the sea of people, a head of untidy black hair. Very untidy black hair. It was his friend, James Potter.


	2. Hogwarts: A Home

Hogwarts; A Home

James was standing amongst a group of friends, leaning with one arm on his upright trunk, smiling at the others and what they were saying, his hazel eyes alight with happiness at being surrounded by welcome company. Two boys were standing next to James. The first was Sirius's good friend, Remus Lupin, who looked slightly thin and tired, with brown hair and caramel coloured eyes. The second of the two, was Sirius's other good friend, Peter Pettigrew, a small, plump boy, with small watery blue eyes and mousey hair.

Sirius walked towards them grinning and happy to see his friends after a long summer holiday with his unpleasant family.

"Hey James!" Sirius called.

James turned around, and he grinned widely to see his best friend striding across the platform, "Sirius, mate! I wondered if you'd make it out alive".

"It was grueling, for sure, but here I am", laughed Sirius as he pulled his friend into a brief hug.

"Hello Sirius," said Remus, with a rather weak but happy smile.

"Hey Remus, how did you go over the summer?" asked Sirius.

"Not too bad actually, the furry little problem behaved itself, mostly", replied Remus.

"Hi Sirius" Peter greeted him jovially "It's great to see you again."

"Its good to see you too, Pete", smiled Sirius.

All three of Sirius's friends were Gryffindors. James was Sirius's best friend and they were as close as brothers. Peter was the last one to join this group of four friends. He was likely to be unpopular, had he not become friends with James and Sirius, the admired rebels. He had no talent with magic, and at one stage, Sirius thought he might have been a squib that Dumbledore had let into Hogwarts, until he managed to give his teacup fur and whiskers in Transfiguration. And while Peter was nothing special when it came to academics and magic, he was a loyal and helpful friend, more than Sirius could ever ask for.

Remus was a Gryffindor Prefect, and a werewolf. He had been bitten by an infamous werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, when he was a very young child, around four, he had told them. His father was a wizard and his mother a muggle. Though they tried very hard to find a cure for his condition, it was not possible and he was forced into his wolf form every full moon, a painful and perilous transformation. On the the full moons that Remus was at Hogwarts, he would be taken down to the Whomping Willow in the evening by the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey. He would then travel through a tunnel to an old and long abandoned building outside the village of Hogsmead, the Shrieking Shack. There he would transform and spend the night. He would often bite and scratch himself with no humans to attack. This was the noise that gave the Shrieking Shack its name. The people of Hogsmead, on the other hand believed that the building was haunted by a group of particularly violent spirits. The Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore had of course made these arrangements for Remus and often encouraged the rumour about the haunting as to avoid suspicion.

Remus had confided this information only to Sirius, James, and Peter. But apart from despising him for lycanthropy, as the rest of the world did, Remus's friends made light of the situation. James had even come to call Remus's illness his 'furry little problem' when the four friends had other company, which lead people to believe that Remus owned a badly behaved rabbit. In their third year at Hogwarts, James and Sirius managed to become animagi. Sirius could turn into a huge, black, shaggy, bear-like dog. James turned into a large stag with chestnut fur and giant antlers. Peter, having nothing near to the ability to able to do this, needed all the help he could get from Sirius and James. However, he became an animagus, transforming into a rat. They were not on the registered animagus list so the Ministry did not know. They each had a nick name, Sirius the dog was Padfoot, James the stag was Prongs, Peter the rat was Wormtail, and Remus the werewolf was Moony.

Once Remus went down to the Shrieking Shack and the common room was empty the three others would sneak down to the tunnel and turn into the animals. In their animal form Remus would not harm them and they would have night time adventures, careering around the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmead. Dumbledore did not know about these adventures.

He did, however, know about other venturing of the four friends that they took part in other days. Walking around the school at night. Exploring secret passage ways, annoying Argus Filch the caretaker, and just generally getting up to no good. And so they had called themselves the Marauders, and they had been friends ever since.

They knew more about Hogwarts more than almost anyone, even Dumbledore. This is why they made the Marauders Map. It was magical map that only they knew how to use. It showed the whole of Hogwarts, secrets and all, as well as the grounds and Hogsmead. It also showed the inhabitants of the area and where they went, in the way of small moving dots of ink with the names of the people written underneath.

Sirius was jubilant to be standing on the platform, back with his partner's in crime.

"Come on", said Remus, as the whistle of the Hogwarts Express sounded.

"Yeah, better get going", said James, "I'll just say goodbye to Mum and Dad".

Mr and Mrs Potter were standing a little bit away talking to Peter's parents, who were both muggles. James walked over to them and then Sirius saw his best friend point to him through the mass of students swarming the train. Mr and Mrs Potter waved at him, and Sirius knew they would have come over to him and said their farewells, had it not been for the amount of people between them and him, and the short time he had left to board the train. They were very dear to him, and more like a mother and father than his real parents were.

Sirius was talking with a fellow sixth year, Frank Longbottom when James came back and the final whistle sounded. The small crowd around them started to disperse and they made for the train.

"This way to our compartment", said Sirius, pointing over the sea of heads that had flooded the corridor of the train.

He lead his friends down the train, until they came to a carriage around the middle, where the Marauder's compartment was. Technically speaking, the compartment was not _theirs._ It was the compartment that Sirius, James, and Remus had sat in together on their first journey to Hogwarts. Peter had joined them there later, and the Marauders had spent many good times there from then on.

Sirius pulled open the door and heaved his trunk into the over head luggage rack, then flung himself down into one of the seats. The others did the same. Sirius looked out of the compartment window and into the corridor, where he saw Frank and his girlfriend, Alice Edgecombe, struggling through the crowd.

"Hey Frank!" James called, sticking his head out of the compartment, having also spotted their friend, "You and Alice can sit in here if you want."

"Thanks James", said Frank, as he walked into the compartment, putting his and Alice's trunks in the luggage rack.

Frank sat down opposite Sirius, James and Peter, next to Remus,and Alice sat down hesitantly, not sharing the same friendship with the Marauders that her boyfriend did.

"Hey guys" said a boy with flaming red hair, who had popped his head through the open compartment door.

"Mind if we sit with you?" asked another boy, identical to the first.

"Course not", said Sirius motioning towards what space was left for them.

"Come on in", said James.

"Thanks", said Fabian Prewett, the first boy.

"Nowhere else had room down the back", said Gideon Prewett, the second of the twins.

"And we didn't want to try our luck down the front", finished Fabian.

The Prewett twins were in Sirius's year at Hogwarts, and were good friends of his and the other Marauders. They had the same flaming red hair and each sported a healthy spattering of freckles across their face. Their build was solid, and they were shorter. They came from a well sized family, with a brother who was five years older than them, named Randal, and a sister some ten years older than them, by the name of Molly. The Prewetts, a Pureblood, but mainly Bloodtraitor family, were distantly related to Sirius.

"Everyone have a good holiday?" asked Frank.

"Fairly relaxing", said James, stretching his legs out in front of him, "Mum and Dad took me to a local Quidditch game. Nothing like the big league, but it was still enjoyable."

"Mine was alright", lied Sirius, his family had made sure this was not the truth.

"I had to visit my old aunt", sighed Peter, "Worst cook I've ever met, she sticks broccoli in her cake!"

"What!" cried Gideon.

"She sounds worse than our old Uncle Billius", Fabian said.

"Well, I don't know about you", said Remus, "But I got my O.W.L results back."

This started them all talking about their O.W.L results. James had achieved eight, the same as Sirius. Remus had gotten nine with an Outstanding for Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"What'd you get Peter", asked James, smirking at Sirius.

"Well, I... um", Peter looked down bashfully at his toes.

"Come on, spit it out, Wormtail", said Sirius, "I want to see of you did our help any justice. I'd take it as a personal insult if they didn't give you a pass for the stuff I gave you notes for".

"I got three O. ", Peter blurted out, and he seemed too embarrassed to say anything else.

"Any Trolls...?" Asked James.

"I- ah, only the one, for Divination", Peter said shamefully.

"A Troll for a troll", laughed Sirius, chuckling.

James, Frank, and both Prewetts laughed. Alice smiled but looked reproachful.

"Don't worry, I didn't do too well for divination either", said Remus, putting down the book he had just been reading.

"I did fine", said James idly.

"Me too", Sirius agreed, although not looking at anyone in case they could tell he was lying, "But don't worry, Peter, half the stuff I said about seeing a 'dark future' in the crystal ball was a lie. Although, I did find History of Magic a tiny bit of a challenge".

"Well, it is a pretty useless subject, so there's nothing to worry about if you fail", said James.

"Useless teacher more like it", said Sirius, "It seems to me that old Professor Binns thinks he's teaching people from about ten years ago."

"It does seem like he's caught up in the past... a little", smiled Remus, "I'd say he's at least _twenty_ years behind."

"He's so old, who knows?" agreed Peter.

"He might, you know, pop his cogs soon", James said with a laugh.

"Regardless of his age, he certainly rambles on", Gideon said.

"Ha, clearly you don't mind the 'tales of old' from Slughorn", contested Fabian.

"Yeah, we end up learning more about history from him than we do with Binns", laughed Sirius.

"Sometimes I think he doesn't realise that he's teaching potions", said Remus.

"Swap him around with Binns", smiled Frank, "Have old Slug teach us History of magic and Binns teach us potions".

"That could prove interesting", agreed James.

They looked round as the compartment door swung open. A girl with long, dark red hair and startlingly green almond-shaped eyes entered. She was also a sixth year, and a Gryffindor prefect. Her name was Lily Evans.

"Ah, Evans, how've you been?" asked James, ruffling his already untidy hair, in what he obviously thought was an appealing fashion, "Have a nice holidays?"

"Yeah, Potter, not too bad. It made a nice change not having to see you", Lily said coldly. Without taking notice of anyone else in the compartment she said, "Marlene, Mary, Emaline and I were wondering if you wanted to come to our compartment for a while, Alice".

Alice, who hadn't said anything for the whole train journey so far, looked relieved to have an excuse to vacate her current compartment; her thoughts on the Marauders were aligned similarly with Lily's, and that meant they weren't exactly friendly with each other.

"That Snape boy's not there, is he?" Alice asked, looking apprehensive.

"What- no, of course not", Lily answered. She seemed flustered at the mention of the name.

"Okay, I'll come", said Alice, grabbing her bag, "See you, Frank".

"Bye", said Frank. He kissed Alice on the cheek and she left the compartment.

Before they closed the compartment door Sirius Heard Lily ask, "Why were you sitting with them?"

James had long since fallen in love with Lily. Unfortunately, Lily was not as keen on James. In fact, she hated him. In her opinion, Sirius and James were arrogant bullies. She was, of course, wrong.

'That Snape boy' was Severus Snape, or as Sirius and James called him, Snivellus. He was a greasy, black haired boy from Slytherin. He was the complete opposite of Sirius and James, and he hated them both, James especially. He was unpopular. He had no talent on the Quidditch pitch, the only subjects he was good at were Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The only reason he was good at Defence was because he knew a lot about the Dark Arts. The only friends he had now were all like him; bound to be Death Eaters. When he arrived at Hogwarts he had known more dark curses than all the seventh years put together.

For some time he had been good friends with Lily. She stood up for him when Sirius and James would jinx him, just for a bit of fun. Then one day he had called her a mudblood, in front of the whole of fifth year. Sirius was not entirely sure what happened after that, but they didn't speak to each other anymore. Still though, Lily held a grudge against he and James, the same as Snivellus did.

##

The sky outside the train had grown dark and Sirius could see stars twinkling through small gaps in the clouds that were drifting across the night sky. Frank had left to find Alice, the Prewett twins had gone to visit some friends they had from fifth year, and Remus had up and gone to the Prefect meeting. He and James were sitting side by side, while Peter dozed lightly in his seat.

Sirius could tell that the train was nearing the Hogsmead station, where they would make their stop. Sirius mentioned this, and the boys started pulling on their school robes. Sirius sat back down, only to see that James was standing on his seat, trying to retrieve something from the depths of his trunk.

"D'you reckon Quidditch tryouts will be difficult this year?", asked James, his voice muffled through the wood of the luggage rack.

"Prongs, you are the best player Hogwarts has seen in ages, I doubt you need to worry", replied Sirius, wondering why his friend could be so concerned about the matter.

"But, I was just worried about... well... you", said James.

Sirius was more than a pretended to appear hurt- James must have been kidding around, surely. He had always spoken highly of Sirius's Quidditch skills before.

"What the hell are you talking about Prongs?" asked Sirius, wanting an explanation for his friend's behaviour.

"I thought the new captain might not want you on the team", explained James.

"What? Who's the new captain?" asked Sirius urgently, "It's not that idiotic seventh year, what's his name?"

"No it's not him", said James.

"But you don't even know who I was going to say!" argued Sirius.

"I know it's definitely not him", said James, sitting down next to Sirius and fumbling with something on his chest. He lowered hands and said, "Because I'm the new team captain."

"What!" exclaimed Sirius, seeing the gleaming badge on his friend's robes and shoving James off the seat, "You idiot! Why didn't you tell me?"

Sirius fell off his chair, landing on his best friend, much to the amusement of Peter, who was watching the spectacle unfold before him.

"Gerroff Padfoot!" James yelled, his voice muffled by the carpet that was pressed against his face.

"Not until you say you'll let me on the team," said Sirius, resting his elbow in between James's shoulder blades and leaning on it.

"Agh!" cried James, "No! You're not on the team! You're too fat, your broom won't hold you up!"

"Fine, fine", said Sirius, "You'd better get as comfortable as you can, then, because I'm staying right here. I mean, it's a lovely spot, lots of cushioning."

"No, gerroff!" shouted James, "I'll hit you with your own broomstick when I get out from under here!"

"Sirius, get off James", a voice said from the compartment door, which had slid open to admit Remus, back from his corridor patrol, "I doubt his mother will be too happy if you return him home all flat. Though... he might not eat as much, so she may be thrilled."

Peter laughed as Remus sat himself next to the smallest of the four boys.

"Oi!" said James, and he began to wriggle, trying to free himself from under the gangly boy sitting on his back.

James freed one of his arms and jabbed Sirius sharply in the ribs with his elbow.

"Ow!", Sirius cried out, "Moony, help! He's being violent!"

" _Me?_ " James said indignantly, trying to pry Sirius's arm from where it had wrapped around his neck, "You're the one sitting on me, you great big oaf!"

James began to twist and turn in an effort to unseat Sirius. Sirius, however held on as he felt the train start to slow. Only did he get off his best friend when the Hogwarts Express came to a halt, sending him toppling off James and across the compartment, where he lay laughing. James sat up and put his glasses back on. He stood, and when Sirius made to do the same, still heaving with laughter, James took advantage of his lack of balance and pushed him back down onto the floor.

"Come on, you lot", said Remus, grabbing his trunk handle and swinging it down from the luggage rack, "We'd better get a move on if we want to be in the same carriage."

He left the compartment, and James followed him into the corridor after saying to Sirius, "You'll be lucky to get your Thunderbow back, I'll probably flog it to some kid in Hogsmead now."

Sirius ignored his friend, grabbing his own trunk and leaving the compartment with Peter. The corridor outside was packed with students, and he found himself and Peter squashed up behind James and Remus. Slowly, the line moved forwards, and he found himself outside the train, on the chilly Hogsmead platform.

"Firs' years this way", Sirius heard the voice of Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundsman and good friend of Dumbledore. With the massive build twice the size of a normal man, Sirius had always wondered what kind of spell or potion he had got in the way of as a child.

Sirius, James, Remus and Peter made their way to a carriage, one of which that would take them up to Hogwarts. It started to rain as the carriage trundled along the road that lead to the school, pulling itself as it always had.

They reached the castle, it's magnificent lights twinkling and casting shapes on the wet grass, and it's enormous front doors thrown open, welcoming students inside. Sirius followed his friends into the Entrance Hall, leaving his trunks by the front, as the Hogwarts house elves would take them inside later. They walked into the Great Hall, where thousands of candles floated in mid air above the heads of the students sitting at the long, wooden house tables, and the high ceiling reflected the swirling and dark sky outside. The friends went and sat down next to the Prewett brothers at the Gryffindor table. Sirius spotted Regulus sitting over at the Slytherin table, with a group of known Voldemort supporters.

He remembered the time his cousin, Narcissa had sat there. It was only in his first and second years, as she was five years older than him. Narcissa had two older sisters, and the younger of the two was called Andromeda.

She was the nicest person Sirius knew in his whole family. Andromeda was seven years older than Sirius. She had fallen in love with a muggle born named Ted Tonks during her years at Hogwarts. They were not married yet, but even if they were, Sirius was quite sure his family would have nothing to do with the wedding, except to continue the stoney silence they maintained with her ever since she had been disowned after going to live with him.

The oldest of the three sisters was Bellatrix Lestrange. She was evil and deranged as far as Sirius was concerned. Once she had finished at Hogwarts, she left to Join Voldemort and become a Death Eater. Over the years, she had advanced to become one of the most notorious Muggle slaughterers. Bellatrix had married a fellow Death Eater, Rudolphus Lestrange, who was from Russia, last year. Her new brother in law, Rabastan Lestrange, was also a Death Eater.

Sirius was pulled abruptly from his thoughts about his family as the crowd in the Great Hall grew silent, as the deputy headmistress, Professor McGonagall, lead the first years up to the front of the Hall for sorting. Professor Flitwick came down from the staff table and placed a small three legged stool on the floor, which on top he sat an old battered hat. It was covered in patches and had stitching everywhere. Sirius had never seen it washed, in his whole time at Hogwarts. It was the sorting hat.

One by one, Professor McGonagall called up the first years and placed the sorting hat on their head. Sometimes the hat would shout the house almost before it even touched the student's head. Other times it would sit and think, or make a hard choice between two of the houses.

Once the first years were sorted into Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin; Dumbledore got up to say a few words. The hall grew silent as the frail old wizard with his half-moon spectacles, crooked nose, and silver hair and beard that were long enough to tuck into his belt; made his way to the front of the stage.

"Welcome to our new students and welcome back to our current students and distinguished staff members", He looked out across the Great Hall with his pale blue eyes that gave Sirius the impression that Dumbledore could see right through everyone, "I'm sure you are hungry and you do not want me to stand here waffling on. Don't worry, I won't!"

He clapped his hands and the golden plates and crystal goblets filled with food and drink.

"Finally, some proper food", said Sirius as he piled chicken wings onto his plate.

"What's wrong with the stuff at your place?" asked James.

"Yeah, you've got a house elf and everything", said Peter.

"Just because he's a house elf, doesn't mean he can't be as rude and cruel as the rest of the family", said Sirius, helping himself to some potatoes, "He goes to trouble making sure that my meals are especially hard to swallow. I swear I found a rat's dropping in my soup one time. He's sure gone off his rocker".

"Don't worry, like you said, you'll be eating proper food for a while now", said Remus.

After pudding, the students quietened down, full and sleepy. Dumbledore got up once more, to make his speech.

"I have some reminders for you before you all go to bed", he cleared his throat, "Our caretaker, Mr Filch, wishes me to remind you that using any hexes or jinxes outside of class is not to be accepted, and that he is going to give detentions for any trouble whatsoever. Also students are not to visit the Forbidden Forest".

At the end of this list of things not to be done, Sirius was sure he saw Dumbledore smile briefly at him and his friends.

"I wish you to remember that these are dark times", Dumbledore continued, "Do not go wondering around the grounds at night and be careful while visiting Hogsmead village. Enemies are outside our walls as we speak. Lord Voldemort-" there were gasps of surprise as the name was said "- and his Death Eaters are at large. While we are on that topic, I urge you to use his name, fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself and in order to not be overcome by Voldemort we must be brave, for he operates according to the fear of his enemies... But, you are surely tired after your long journey here, and you need rest for your lessons tomorrow. Off to bed with you all".

Remus left his seat in a hurry, going to show the Gryffindor first years the way to their dormitories. Sirius watched him go as he got up. Lily was already with the group of small eleven year olds, awaiting the help of Remus.

Sirius, James, and Peter exited the Great Hall together, pushing through the jostling crowd, making their way into the marble staircase that lead to the floors above. They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, then realised that none of them knew the password.

"You two are back again, then", said the Fat Lady to Sirius and James, "To cause more trouble, as usual".

"We don't have the password", said Peter.

"Oh, and you're still dragging this poor boy around with you, I see", the Fat Lady said, ignoring Peter.

"Hang on! I've got the new password", a voice shouted from down the stair case. They turned around to see Frank hurrying towards them.

"Oh, good", said James.

"Rumblebark", said Frank, nodding.

"What?" asked Sirius.

"Password", said Frank.

"Oh", said Sirius.

"Are you going in or do I have to hang here all night?" asked the Fat Lady impatiently.

"Sorry", said Frank to her, as the four of them entered the common room.

"I'm pretty tired", said Sirius, as they entered the cozy common room, "I reckon I'll go to bed."

"Yeah, me too", said James.

"You two must be getting old", smiled Peter, "But I'm pretty knackered myself."

Sirius, James and Peter went upstairs to their dormitory. Remus was already there, reading his book. Gideon and Fabian were also there, hanging posters of their favourite Quidditch team on the walls beside their beds.

"Hey Padfoot", said James, "Here".

James handed Sirius his Thunderbow 9 broom. He grasped the smooth handle and let go the broom hovered a few feet from the ground.

"You can't imagine how much I want to fly it out the window right now", said Sirius to James.

"I have some idea", smiled James.

"I know you love flying, but you haven't been shut up inside for two months", said Sirius grabbing the broom and putting it under his bed.

"I s'pose", agreed James, as Sirius got his pyjamas out of his trunk, which now lay at the foot of his four-poster bed, "But I have a new training regime for the team this year, absolutely gruelling. After all the flying you'll be doing, you're going to get boils the size of Russia."

Sirius finished pulling on his pyjamas and sank down onto his comfy mattress.

"You're a cruel man, Prongs", said Sirius.

"You might say that now", said James, pulling his pyjama shirt over his head, "But after we win the Quidditch Cup, you'll be begging to know how I, James Rorian Potter the Great, managed such a feat. I'll also be expecting you to throw petals over me every time I enter the common room."

"He'll most likely expect a foot rub, too, Sirius", said Gideon.

"With skin softening potion, of course", agreed Fabian.

"No", said James, "That job belongs to you, if want to be my two other chasers."

"Yeah", Sirius agreed, "You peasants. You get the nasty jobs."

"James has terrible toe jam, too", added Remus from over the top of his book, "But a lot worse than toe jam will happen to you lot if you don't quiet down."

"Don't go all prefect on us, Moony", Sirius said with a sad face, "You're so mean. You wound me, you do!"

"Oh, shut up, Padfoot" sighed Remus, as he half-heartedly threw a pillow at Sirius.

"Ow! Moony!" Sirius gasped, feining shock, "Now you're trying to hurt me, too! First James on the train, now you!"

"Just go to bed", said James, pulling his covers up and taking off his glasses.

"Yeah", said Remus, sitting his book on his bedside table and lying down.

Frank and Peter were already on their sides, and when Gideon and Fabian turned out their lamps, Sirius called out, "All this abuse. I'm going to have mental and emotional trauma from you two! Honestly I-"

"Shut up!" cried James and Remus through the dark, finally seeming genuinely irritated.

Sirius rolled on to his side and rested his head more comfortably on his pillow, trying to suppress his laughter.

He felt more happy and relaxed than he had all holidays, since he had left Hogwarts at the end of the last school year. It was good to be back at Hogwarts. It was good to be home.


	3. Snivelly's OWLs

"She's like a stunning spell, yeah, she's got me Stupified..."

Sirius groaned as James's loud, jarring singing echoed from the dormitory bathroom and into his ears.

"Shut up James!" he called, shoving his head underneath his pillow.

"There she goes, she's jinxed my heart again..." James continued, much to Sirius's annoyance.

"It's time to get up, anyway" said Remus from somewhere near the foot of Sirius's bed.

Sirius's only reply was a groan from beneath his pillow.

"She's jinxed my heart again..." James's voice sounded from behind the bathroom door.

"If you don't shut up", yelled Sirius, ripping his pillow away from his face, "I'll jinx the whole of you, not just that heart you keep wailing about!"

"What are you whinging about?" asked James, opening the door to the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel.

"That ruddy singing of yours", Sirius complained, pulling his school robes out of his trunk.

"He's not used to waking up before ten", Remus explained, "I suppose that's when you got up over the holidays?"

"Round then, I s'pose" yawned Sirius, heading for the bathroom.

"Just not a morning person, are you?" James laughed, messing up Sirius's hair as he passed on his way to the bathroom.

"You know, a lot of people wouldn't want to wake up if it meant listening to your stupid screeching", Sirius retorted.

"I do not screech!" said James, but it was too late, as Sirius had already swung the bathroom door shut in his face.

After a hot shower, which brightened his mood a little, and an aguement with James about how he had only been joking about the screeching, Sirius had entered the Great Hall with his friends.

He walked down the Gryffindor table and sat himself between Remus and James.

"Just in time", said Sirius, looking to his left, past James and Peter, and down the table, to where he could see Professor McGonagall handing out time tables.

He knew that the sixth years would have to stay behind to see what subjects they could continue, based on their O.W.L results.

Once everyonelse was gone, the sixth years sat at their house tables as their heads of houses gave them their time tables. Professor McGonagall started going through, filling in the time tables with a wave of her wand. She filled out Remus's then James's. She then came to Sirius.

"Mr Black", McGonagall moved her finger up the list she was holding, "I can see you've chosen to continue Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Transfiguration. I remember you telling me it was your ambition to become an Auror, Black."

"Yes Professor", said Sirius.

"You are well on your way to becoming one", McGonagall replied, "Seeing as you have achieved an Outstanding on all the necessary subjects. I also see you want to continue Care of Magical Creatures."

"Just out of interest. It makes school all the more interesting", he said.

"I'm sure it does, Mr Black. Well, here is your time table", She said, tapping an empty time table with her wand and handing to him, "Oh, and I wish to congratulate you on your Transfiguration mark. It seems you had time to learn in between achieving detentions".

McGonagall walked on to the next student, smiling

After collecting their time tables, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter stood outside the Great Hall, seeing what lessons they had together.

Peter would be back in Gryffindor Tower for this lesson, having a free period. He had only been able to continue Care of Magical Creatures, Charms and Herbology. This absence of lessons had given him lots of spare time, which Professor McGonagall recommended he spend studying.

"Look, double Potions in the afternoon", said James.

"Who with?" asked Sirius.

"Slytherins", said James, looking a bit disheartened.

"That just gives us a chance at showing up Snivelly in N.E.W.T grade Potions", smiled Sirius, "Because he definitely would have passed that O.W.L".

"And Defence", said James, "Otherwise though, he's too stupid to pass anything else".

"I've got Transfiguration with you two first up", said Remus, abruptly changing the subject.

"We'd better get to class", said James, "We don't want to get a detention on our first day back".

"Not that it would breaking any of our personal records", laughed Sirius.

##

That morning's class wasn't very interesting. The sixth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had the Transfiguration lesson together.

The Transfiguration lesson was theory, and Sirius was soon bored with listening about ways of colouring hair, eye brows, and toenails. He was drawing a picture of a flying motorbike (one of which he would very much like to own) in the back of his text book, when the bell for the next lesson rang. He and James departed with some of the Gryffindors to go down to the grounds near the forest for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Remus had Herbology, and so he left with the Hufflepuffs.

This lesson, they were learning how to put a Silencing Charm on a Fwooper bird, in order to then trim its vibrantly coloured tail feathers, which made highly prized quills. The Silencing Charms were necessary because the song of the Fwooper would drive the listeners insane.

After lunch, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all had a free lesson, which they spent in the library, although not much studying was going on.

After Snivellus and Filch, the librarian, Madam Pince, was their third favourite person to annoy, right before McGonagall and the general public. Her obsession with alphabetical and chronological order, along with her constant fussing over the pristine condition of all her books, allowed the two boys to have so much fun.

Today, she was in between the shelves putting returned books back into their rightful place.

Suddenly, Sirius had an idea. One that would provide them with about fifteen minutes' entertainment.

"Hey James", Sirius leant across the bench, "Wouldn't it be terrible for Madam Pince if all her hard work went to waste?"

"Yeah, I s'pose", said James looking confused.

"But it is going to waste", said Sirius, "She's putting these books back in order, just to have them messed up by the average uncaring Hogwarts student".

"If you're saying to put the books back in the right place, forget it", said James.

"No, what I'm saying is that we should give her hard work some value," Sirius continued, "Some entertainment value".

"Oh", said James, seeming to have caught on.

"Now wouldn't it be a tragedy if those books got put in the wrong places", Sirius said. He became aware that Peter was staring excitedly at them.

"Definitely", agreed James, a mock look of sadness on his face.

"Say, their covers got mixed around", smiled Sirius.

"Oh yes", James agreed again.

"I've just got to find something on Herbology", said Remus, and he suddenly got up and walked over to some far away shelves.

"Well, we'd better put some entertainment value on the humble job of the librarian", Sirius said, now grinning.

He reached up and pulled down a book, the cover was of old blue dyed leather. Printed in gold was the title: _The Art of The Cauldron_ , _a History of Discoveries in Alchemy_.

"Looks very boring", said James, faking a tone of excitement.

Sirius then took down _Witch Burning of The Medieval Times._

"Lovely, nice and dull", he said.

James raised his wand.

"Wait", Sirius held up his hand to stop his friend, "We should check for any protection charms. Revelio".

The revealing spell showed nothing.

"Okay then", said Sirius, satisfied that it was safe to tear off the cover.

"Wait, the charms might be hidden", said James.

"Only one way to find out", Sirius proceeded to ripping off the cover from around the first book.

After a lot of Severing Charms and Permanent Sticking Charms, the two of them had managed to mix around the covers of a whole shelf.

"Great, follow me", said Sirius to James.

"Can I come too?" asked Peter enthusiastically.

"Wait here and stay out of trouble, we'll need someone to carry our bags out once we've bolted",Sirius told him.

He picked up one of the books and walked towards the old librarian, followed by James.

"Excuse me, but I think these books were put back on the wrong shelf", he said to Madam Pince.

"I don't doubt it, with all you careless students running amuck in my library", she replied somewhat angrily.

"But there must have been some sort of mix up", piped in James.

"Oh really, and why is that", Madam Pince regarded them with suspicious looks.

"Well, I took this one down thinking it was about alchemy and potions, as it said on the cover, but when I opened it, I was reading about healing spells", explained Sirius.

"I don't understand", said Madam Pince.

"They're all the same, over there, on that shelf", said James, pointing to the shelf where they had been sitting.

"Let me see", she said, and walked off haughtily to the shelf, the two friends followed.

She walked in behind the shelf while James and Sirius waited off to the side. Sirius could see Peter watching from the end of the shelf. Sirius gave him the thumbs up from behind Madam Pince.

"Here, I'm sure the books are fine", she said, and reached up and pulled down one the books.

Confusion registered on her face as she pulled down books at random.

"It looks as if the covers have been mixed around... They've been all mixed up... But that would mean someone has done this... You!" she screamed.

But it was too late, Sirius and James had rushed out of the library and down the corridor, where they sat panting with lack of breath and silent laughter. They could hear the librarian screeching about 'disrespect in her great hall of learning' and 'good for nothing vandals of reading content'. Once they had their breath back they hurried up to Gryffindor tower.

"Padfoot, have I ever told you that you're a genius", said James, as they burst through the portrait hole laughing, attracting reproachful glances of some seventh years studying in the corner.

"No, but now you say it, it explains why I'm so brilliant", Sirius was still having fits of silent mirth.

"She'll have a hard time getting over that one", smiled James.

"The funny thing is, that the books have got permanent sticking charms on them", laughed Sirius, "She's never going to be able to get those covers back on the right way".

"I think we'd better refrain from going to the library for quite a while", said James.

"It's such a shame, I loved spending all my spare time in there. Wasting away over an old book", Sirius said, feigning a look of great disappointment.

Just then, Peter tumbled through the portrait hole, weighed down by the hassle of three bags, James's, Sirius's, and his own. He was being followed by a slightly annoyed looking Remus.

"That was Brilliant!" exclaimed Peter, as he put down the three heavy bags.

"What can I say", said Sirius.

"We find it comes naturally", agreed James.

"You'd better hope you don't get a detention", said Remus. The side of his mouth twitched, "Although it was pretty funny".

"You should have seen her face after you ran", chortled Peter.

"We didn't but we sure heard her", replied Sirius.

"Yeah, you unappreciative book manglers", James said in high pitched croaky voice that actually sounded a bit like Madam Pince.

"Imagine the trouble we'd be in if old McGonagall found out", said Sirius.

"Oh, I can imagine it, Mr Black", said someone behind them. Sirius turned around and to his surprise, he saw McGonagall standing there, looking livid with fury, her lips pressed tightly together in anger.

"Honestly Professor, we only did it for a bit of a laugh, nothing personal", said Sirius.

"No, Black, you cannot talk yourself out of this one", she replied, giving him and James her sternest look.

"Madam Pince came to me only minutes before, practically sobbing about the condition of some of her oldest books", continued McGonagall, "From what I could understand, she said that some students had removed the covers of these books and used a permanent sticking charm to stick the covers to other books. Two students in particular. Sirius Black and James Potter. I'm afraid that, as your head of house, I will have to give you both detentions. Starting tomorrow evening from five. Continuing until Saturday next week"

"But Professor, I've got to schedule a Quidditch tryout for next week. I need a full team by the end of week two", said James in dismay.

"We'll be behind the other houses a week if we can't get the tryout", exclaimed Sirius, "Can't you postpone the detention or something".

"No I cannot", Sirius knew he was pushing his luck by asking this as soon as she replied, "Because regrettably, Black, in this situation I am the teacher and both of you are the students. You will just have to postpone your Quidditch tryouts, Potter. Remember, tomorrow evening, my office, at five o'clock sharp".

With that she strode out of the common room, leaving them with three minutes to get to class.

"Just great, and I thought we really had the season in the bag if we just got a good seeker and two okay beaters", said James, his spirits visibly dampened.

"Doesn't she care if we lose? I mean, she's our head of house, you'd think even she'd get a bit competitive with the other teachers", said Sirius angrily.

"Let's not dwell on it now", said Remus, "We've got two minutes to get to class. Both of you have to get all the way to the dungeons".

"I forgot", said Sirius glumly, "Potions with the Slytherins".

"Fun", said James, rolling his eyes.

They picked up their bags and went out the portrait hole. They hurried down flights of stairs and through corridors, taking every short cut they knew. Eventually, they arrived outside the dungeons just in time to see Professor Slughorn open the door and let the students in.

"Next year, when I'm of age, I'm just going to apparate to every class", muttered James, as he, Sirius, and Remus sat down at a bench up the back of the classroom.

"Come now, everyone, sit down", said Slughorn.

Slughorn was a middle aged man who was rather large and rotund, with a large bushy moustache. He reminded Sirius somewhat of a walrus.

Sirius noticed that there were potions sitting up on the front desk of the classroom. A large cauldron of gluggy mixture that was bubbling away, like mud. Next to it was a slightly smaller cauldron of some shiny liquid that had swirls of steam rising from it. There was also a large bottle of what looked like plain water. And last, a tiny crystal phial of something that resembled molten gold. Sirius also noticed a sweet smell in the air. It was quite pleasant, and it reminded him of the smell the wind, like when he would soar high above the ground on his Thunderbow. Also the smell of a home cooked meal that made him think of the feasts in the Hogwarts hall, when Gryffindor seemed like one big family.

He looked across to see James had a dreamy gaze upon his face.

"Now, I've got a treat for you today", announced Slughorn looking eagerly around, as if he expected them to be jumping out of their seats in excitement.

Sirius looked around the class room, to see that not at rest number of students had made it to N.E.W.T level Potions. From Gryffindor there was himself, James, Remus, Alice, Frank, Marlene, and Lily, as well as another Gryffindor sixth year, whose name was Ariella. There were two Hufflepuffs, Tasha Smith and her friend, Jasmine Brown, who were sitting beside Marlene, Lily and Alice. From Ravenclaw, nine students had passed. From Slytherin, there were five students that were sitting up the back as well, including Macnair and Nott, both in the Slytherin Quidditch team, and people Sirius was willing to bet on becoming Death Eaters. Snivellus was one of their number, but he sat alone, in a back corner.

"These are some potions that are likely to come up in your N.E. ", continued Slughorn, "I thought I'd show them to you, just to get you interested", He seemed to pause for dramatic effect, "Now to business, as they say. Who can tell me what these potions are?"

He stopped and looked around, "What about you, Severus", he asked, talking to Snape.

Snivellus looked annoyed at being asked but replied in an undertone, "One's Polyjuice".

"Correct, my dear boy", Slughorn smiled, "It allows you to transform into anyone you may choose. But, only if a hair from them is added", he paused yet again, "Now this one may look like the purest of water. But that is only so it can easily be slipped into peoples' drinks... Yes, yes, of course one might think it would be a deadly poison, but who can tell me its true identity?"

One of the Ravenclaws raised their hand, "It's a truth serum, Veritaserum".

"Very good. I believe they use it in the Department of Mysteries, at the Ministry. To get the truth out of criminals, you know. But don't let out that I told you", Slughorn tapped the side of his nose and winked, "This one here might interest you. This here is Amortentia, a love potion".

Tasha and Jasmine giggled, and Sirius thought they glanced back in his direction.

"It cannot create real love, of course. But it is probably the most dangerous potion in this room...Last, but definitely not least," said Slughorn, with the air of a ringmaster announcing the star act of his circus, "This is Felix Felicis, or liquid luck".

"You wouldn't catch me brewing that, I'm practically luck in human form",James said to Sirius and Remus in an undertone, "It explains my skills in Quidditch, that and pure talent".

"Same here", agreed Sirius.

"It gives you the best of luck once you take it, for how long depends on the dosage", Slughorn explained, "But Felix cannot be taken too much, otherwise it can result in giddiness, recklessness and over confidence".

"Although it seems that not everyone has to take too much Felix to be like that..." Sirius heard Lily mutter to Jasmine, who seemed to look a little apprehensive.

"This bottle of Felix Feliscis will be a prize to the student who can brew the best Draught of Living Death", smiled the professor, "Might I remind you that Felix is illegal to use in any test, sports match, or competition. So whoever wins this must only use it on a normal day. So get out your text books and find the recipe, you have the rest of this double lesson to brew your potion".

"I wouldn't mind winning that potion", said James.

"I thought you agreed about being lucky anyway", Remus stated, already flipping through his _Advanced Potion Making_ book.

"Yeah, but still, I really just want to have best potion in the class, nothing to do with the Felix", James said as he took out his brass scales and weighed his Valerian roots.

The class was almost silent for the rest of the lesson. They all seemed bent on winning the little bottle of liquid luck. By the end of the lesson, a number of them were all sweaty and red in the face from slaving over their cauldrons for about two hours. Sirius noticed that Snape had been adding wrong amounts and cutting things up the wrong way. His potion had turned a nasty green colour, which Sirius found quite amusing. But Snivellus was usually good at potions, although he did have a history of experimenting.

"Well, well, it's time to see how you young potioneers are getting on. Add the finishing touches to your potions, and I'll come around and have a look", Slughorn started roaming around the classroom, stopping at the students' full cauldrons.

He didn't say anything, but had a smell or gave the mixtures a stir.

When he came to Snape's, he said, "Very brave of you, Severus, but don't try too hard to improve the potion through experimentation, it could have gone better..."

Slughorn continued around the classroom, and when he stopped at Lily's, he nodded approvingly. He came to Sirius, James, and Remus's bench. He looked between the potions. Sirius's was slightly darker and thicker. Remus's had to have been near perfect, and James's was hardly any different.

"I'm sorry Miss Evans, Mr Lupin, but it seems Mr Potter here has done the better job", smiled Slughorn, "Very good attempt for a sixth year, Mr Potter. You are the winner. Here, have your well-earned prize, my boy".

James grinned as Slughorn handed him the tiny phial of golden luck.

"Well, mate", said Sirius, "All that's left for you to do is to find a time when this would be useful".

"Oh, I will", smiled James, and they picked up their bags and left the dungeons with Remus.

"If you had of won it earlier, we mightn't have gotten that detention", said Sirius glumly, as he remembered that they had detention tomorrow.

"Yeah, I know, that was pretty harsh, giving us one on our first day back", James agreed angrily. They had walked out into the grassy courtyard that resided near the charms classroom.

"She needs to calm down, walking around like her wand's stuck up her nose", Sirius said.

He felt like kicking something. He was frustrated that his first two weeks back had already been ruined.

"Yeah, she is a bit that way", said James as he sat down against an old tree.

"I can't stick around", said Remus, continuing across the courtyard, calling back to them, "I''ve got to get to the library."

Sirius leant against the tree with one arm. He glowered at the passers-by. James had taken out his Golden Snitch, the one he had stolen last year from the Quidditch pitch store-rooms. He sat there, letting it fly away and then snatching it out of the air.

Lily walked past and through the courtyard. James looked up and ruffled his hair, making it extremely untidy. The Snitch got away from him. Sirius reached out and caught it.

"Not bad", said James as Sirius handed him the Snitch.

"Just put it away, Peter's not here to get excited and it doesn't impress me either", Sirius said.

"Suit yourself", said James roughly and he put the Snitch back in his pocket.

Just then, Sirius saw Snivellus sit down on a stone bench and start scribbling away in his potions text book. He suddenly felt a whole lot better, now that he had something to vent his anger on.

"Hey, Prongs, look who it is", Sirius nodded towards were Snivellus sat.

Sirius got up with James. They drew their wands out as the approached the black haired boy.

"So, that potion didn't go to well for you, did it, Snivellus?" smiled Sirius.

As soon as he looked up, Snape dropped his book and drew his wand from his pocket. However James was too quick.

" _Levicorpus!_ " he shouted, and Snivellus was hoisted up into the air, swearing violently and struggling, "I don't know how you got into N.E.W.T grade potions, without the skills to tell green from purple".

"How'd your O. go anyway, Snivellus?" asked Sirius, "What kind of marks do they give people who leave grease marks from their abnormally large noses all over the papers".

"I wouldn't expect you to know", spat Snivellus as he hung in the air. A small crowd had gathered around them to watch.

"No? why's that? Is it because you're the only one here with a nose that big?" said Sirius coolly.

He could hear the onlookers laughing.

"I think it's time we let him down", said James, and laughing, flicked his wand, causing Snivellus to fall into a heap on the ground. Snape launched himself towards his wand, but this time Sirius stopped him.

"Petrificus Totalus", shouted Sirius, and Snape's legs and arms snapped to the sides of his body, so that he lay stiffly on the ground, unable to move, but he could still talk. Snivellus cursed loudly.

" _Langlock!_ " yelled James, using a tongue-tying spell, "You need to watch your mouth!"

"Not so lippy now are you, Snivellus?" Sirius said coldly.

"No he isn't, nosey more like", James smiled down at the struggling Snivellus as the crowd of on lookers erupted into laughter.

" _Levicorpus!_ " Sirius pointed his wand at Snape who was trying to reach for his own wand across the grass, the body-binding hex starting were off. Snivellus was hoisted up, yet again, by the ankle. He looked ridiculously funny, Sirius and James roared with laughter. Sirius asked the by standers, "Who wants to see if we can stick Snivelly in that tree?"

"Go on mate", said James, "Maybe he'll get higher marks when he's above the ground".

Sirius raised his wand and levitated the struggling, yelling Snivellus up high into the air, and with a flick of his hand, dropped him into the branches of a short, bushy tree that sat in the middle of the courtyard.

"How's the view up there, Snivellus?" James called up into the tree. All Snivellus did was groan.

"Don't bother asking, Prongs", said Sirius between fits of laughter, "He won't be able to see past that massive thing he calls a nose".

James and Sirius had their sides splitting with mirth as they turned away, stumbling towards their bags. Most of the small crowd had dispersed, and were chattering and sniggering excitedly.

James and Sirius headed up to the Gryffindor tower for some well-earned relaxation time before dinner in the Great Hall.


	4. In The Moonlight

Over the next two weeks, Sirius and James spent their afternoons doing detentions with McGonagall. This meant that they were starting to get behind on homework, but they managed to get through it on Sunday.

Sadly, the detention also meant that they had no Quidditch tryouts until the third week of term. But finally, on the Wednesday afternoon of the third week in the term, James held a tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Sirius and James headed down to the pitch. There was a rather long line of hopefuls waiting.

James let everyone who was left of last year's very successful team back on for this year, he did however need to replace both Beaters and the Seeker.

Sirius knew he would get in for certain, and everybody else seemed to think so too. Only one other person tried out for Keeper. He was a seventh year by the name of Lionel Johnson.

Johnson went up before Sirius. He was fairly good. He stopped most of the goals but fumbled a few.

Sirius was up next. He walked up to the goalpost with his broom over his shoulder. As he mounted, some fifth year girls who had come to watch cheered for him. He gave them a brief wave and took off. He stopped every goal and even hung one handed off his broom and kicked the Quaffle through the goal at the other end of the pitch. He was named the team's Keeper, but Johnson was given the position of substitute, should Sirius not be able to play.

Johnson's younger sister, Andrea, was the one to obtain the position of Seeker, with her slight build and a knack for quick manoeuvering.

Sirius was, of course, happy with James, Gideon, and Fabian as the Chasers, as the three friends worked together very well. He was ecstatic about being the Keeper again this year, as he had always loved playing on the team. The problem was the Beaters.

The thing was that most people who had shown up for Beater tryouts were not that bright. They had nothing between the ears and reminded Sirius of gorillas. Luckily, the previous Beaters had been alright. But they had graduated from Hogwarts last year, and now it was up to James to pick a new pair. The sad thing was that the only people to choose from were gorillas, and an annoying bossy seventh year called Chase McCormack. In the end, James chose Bruce Billson, because of the sheer power of his hit, and much to Sirius's disappointment, Chase.

After the tryouts, everyone who had attended made their way up to the Great Hall for dinner after they had gotten changed out of their Quidditch robes.

"So, what d'you think of the team?" asked James, as they sat down next to Peter and Remus at the Gryffindor table.

"Pretty good, excellent Keeper", replied Sirius, biting into a chicken wing as Remus rolled his eyes, "And great Chasers as well, good Seeker too. But those Beaters are idiots".

"Don't you just love blunt honesty", smiled Remus.

"They're not that bad", said James defensively.

"I don't mean the way they play", explained Sirius, "I mean Billson's an alright guy. But that McCormack, I can see him causing a match to go pear shaped. He's just bossy, it's like he thinks he's the captain. You know, congratulating every one and telling them to be ready for training".

"I noticed that a bit", agreed James, "But he's got good technique, and don't worry, I'll make sure he knows who's the captain".

##

The next day, it was the last Thursday of September, and it was the full moon. Remus had been looking peaky and ill all day. Sirius, on the other hand, although he felt sorry for Remus, was excited. It would be their first adventure since last year, and he couldn't wait.

They were sitting in the common room, James and Sirius were playing a game of exploding snap. Peter had been playing but had left, muttering darkly after his fingers got singed. Remus was staring out the window into the grounds, which were bathed in the last sunlight of September.

It was around five o'clock when Remus left to go to the hospital wing so he could be taken down to the Willow by Madam Pomfrey.

James, Sirius and Peter were waiting in the common room until it was empty enough for James to get everything they needed for their venturing. He came back down from the dormitory with his invisibility cloak and the creation of the four friends, the Marauders Map.

They slipped on the invisibility cloak and walked out the portrait hole.

"Sneaking out are you", said a voice behind them, but to Sirius's great relief, it was just the fat lady, "Sirius Black and James Potter, always at the heart of the mischief".

"Shut up will you?" said Sirius harshly from under the cloak.

"Fine then, but don't expect me to let you back in at the crack of dawn", she replied haughtily and went back to pretending to be asleep.

They opened the map. James reached forward and tapped it with his wand and whispered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good".

The map suddenly transformed. Writing appeared in bright green ink and it filled the parchment, showing a map of Hogwarts. Up the top of the map was written: 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers, are Proud to Present the Marauders' Map'. All over the map were little dots of ink that had names underneath them. These showed everyone in Hogwarts and the grounds surrounding it, where they were and who they were. The map also showed every secret passage way inside the castle. There were seven that lead in and out of Hogwarts. It had taken them quite a long time to make it, two years in fact. They had to use complex magic, including the Homonculous Charm. They had also managed to enchant it so that insulted anyone who they wouldn't want reading it, and so that it would only reveal the pass-phrase to any true mischief makers in the future.

Sirius checked the map to see where all the teachers were. They were in their offices or beds. He searched the map for Filch and his watchful pet cat, Mrs Norris. They were skulking around in the third floor corridor.

"Right, we just have to avoid the third floor", said Sirius.

"If we take the staircase all the way down to the dungeons, we can get out from the tunnel behind that statue of Edward the Ugly", James said pointing to a particularly hideous statue on the map.

"Sounds like a plan", agreed Peter.

The three of them went down the moving staircases to the first floor, where they then travelled down the spiral staircase into the dungeons. When they came to the statue, Sirius pulled out his wand. On the map, a picture of a wand hitting the statue over the head appeared. Sirius payed no attention to it, having followed the tunnel many times. He reached up and tapped Edward the Ugly on the head three time with his wand.

The bricks behind the statue slid backwards and sideways so that they sat underneath the bricks beside them. Then the statue shifted slowly backwards into the hole that had been made in the wall.

James pulled the cloak off them and then, tucking it under his arm, jumped into a hole that had been revealed in the floor. Sirius followed him with the map. He slid down an almost vertical slope that lasted for around three metres. Peter came down behind him. They were in a tunnel with a ceiling just high enough for them to walk with their back bent over. The walls were rocky and cold.

They continued down the tunnel for about twenty minutes until they reached a large rock blocking the exit. James levitated the rock out of the exit and they went through, putting the rock back behind them.

They stepped out into the light of the full moon. The grounds were shining eerily, and there was fog rolling across the grass in front of the Forbidden Forest. Sirius heard a distant howl and then a few yelps. Signs that Remus had completed his painful transformation into his half wolf form.

It was here that James stored the Map and the cloak. He went and hid them under a bush near the entry to the tunnel.

Now they had to transform into their animal forms so they could sneak down to the Willow without being caught.

First James started to grow, and after the full transformation, there stood a large chestnut stag in his place. Sirius stepped forward and transformed into a dog. It was a challenge, having to walk on four, very different legs. He could also smell the scents of many of the things around him, the grass under his feet, the cold night air, and the stench of rotting leaves on the floor of the Forbidden Forest. He watched as Peter turned into his rat form. Sirius could always tell Peter apart from other rats, his ears were topped by little tufts of fur.

The three of them set off towards the Willow, bounding, running, and scurrying across the grounds.

When they reached the violently thrashing tree, Peter scampered over through the wildly whipping branches, towards the trunk. With his front paw, he poked a knot in the wood and the tree became calm.

Peter ran down into a large hole under the roots of the tree. James and Sirius followed. Inside there was a tunnel that had rough stone walls, covered with moss and lichen. It smelt damp and musty.

The walked through the tunnel for about fifteen minutes. As they neared the end, the howls and whimpers Sirius had been able to hear the whole time became louder. The tunnel started to slope upwards until it stopped. There was a trapdoor in the roof.

Peter was waiting on the tunnel floor when they got there. He climbed up onto James's shoulder, then up his antlers, which he jumped off and through the trapdoor. Sirius followed, leaping up onto the hard wooden floor above. James came through after him, with some difficulty.

The room they were standing in was in appalling condition. The windows were boarded up and the light of the full moon shone through the boards of wolds, sending shafts of illumination through the dusty air. Half mangled furniture lay strewn around the room and some of the floor boards were rotting. The stair case that lead up to the second floor had partially collapsed.

Sirius could smell the sweet, musty scent that always clung to the ancient building. His ears prickled painfully as he heard a high pitched yelp coming from somewhere above them. With his super-sensitive hearing, he was almost certain that Remus was on the third and topmost floor.

He barked at the others to follow and made his way up the stairs carefully. They continued past the second floor where there were signs of new wreckage, and then slowly up the other flight of stairs. They cautiously turned around the decaying banister to see Remus.

He had grown into a large wolf. But unlike normal wolves his tail was rather bushy, and his eyes looked nearly human. His snout was also a lot shorter. These were the defining characteristics that would identify any werewolf.

Sirius watched as Remus sniffed the air and turned to look at the rat, stag and dog. He seemed to recognise them. Sirius approached him carefully. Sirius was the closest friend to Remus when he was in his half wolf form. Sirius suspected it had something to do with the relation between dogs and wolves.

Remus bent down to sniff at Sirius. He then lifted his head back and howled in approval, Sirius barked back to him and lead him over to James and Peter.

After Remus had familiarised himself with the other two friends, they lead him downstairs. They dropped down into the tunnel and then travelled along with Sirius in the lead, followed eagerly by Remus, with Peter scurrying along beside James, who was behind the werewolf to make sure he didn't try to go back down the tunnel.

After about fifteen minutes they emerged from the end of the tunnel, into the moonlight. Remus lifted his head towards the glowing white orb that was the moon. Seeing that Remus was about to howl and make a lot of unnecessary noise (that could wake the Hogwarts inhabitants), Sirius gave a short bark and ran off into the Forbidden Forest. Luckily Remus followed him as James nudged him along.

As they wound their way through the forest, the trees grew thicker and the fallen foliage on the Forest floor was piling higher. They turned and came to the edge of the Forest that grew near Hogsmead. Sirius ran between the trees barking and howling happily. Remus bounding around behind. James cantered around, pounding across the rotting leaves which Peter scurried through.

They ran out into the village, near the back of the three broomsticks. Sirius ran up the side of a large stack of Fire Whisky barrels and onto the low roof of the pub. He sat down and looked up at the moon. It covered Hogsmead in a soft silvery light, which he found peaceful. The other three had followed him and sat beside him.

Sirius could hear the voices of people in the pub. He howled again at the moon, and he couldn't help feeling a great freedom, as he had so often felt while adventuring with his friends.

He heard the back door swing open below them. He padded over to the edge of the roof. The young barmaid, Madam Rosemerta had walked out. She started to lift a barrel and drag it back towards the door. As Sirius turned around, Remus came galloping over and down the stack of barrels. Sirius and James leapt down as Remus edged towards Madam Rosemerta.

Sirius felt the fur on his back stand on end. Remus was about to attack, if he managed to, Sirius knew he would never be able to live with himself. However, Madam Rosemerta had not yet noticed the fully grown werewolf creeping towards her, only around ten feet away. James jumped in front of Remus, who snarled and tried to lunge for Madam Rosemerta. James put his antlers down and rammed Remus in the stomach pushing him back behind the barrels.

Remus stood up and growled, he made for the other side of the stack, but this time Sirius snarled, jumped up and batted Remus across the face with his paw. Sirius was nearly as big as the werewolf, and Remus stumbled back, yelping briefly. He started to whine and had a sad look in his eyes, as if the human inside him had realised what he was trying to do.

"Who's there?" said Madam Rosemerta from the other side of the Fire Whisky barrels, and Sirius was amazed that she had only just noticed any sort of disturbance.

James gave Remus another shove, and the four of the friends hurried away from the pub, careful to stay in the shadows.

They roamed the streets of the quieter parts of town (making them rather less quiet). Sirius stopped to look into the display of Zonko's joke shop. The new line of Filibuster's fireworks were in the window. They also went past Honeyduke's sweet shop, with its Cockroach Clusters and Fizzing Wizzbees. The sad thing was he couldn't go in and buy them.

They ran around the town. Sirius barked and chased some cats they found lurking in an alleyway. They made so much noise that a woman came out of her house with a broom. Sirius and James managed to shove Remus away before she saw him, but seeing Peter, she did what anyone who was holding a broom and had just saw a rat would do, nearly killing him, much to others' amusement.

A few hours had passed and they reluctantly headed back towards the Forest, but not before they made a stop at their favourite place to come on a full moon.

It was a rocky outcrop on the side of a hill, which looked towards The Shrieking Shack, sitting in the distance. Sirius climbed nimbly up onto the outcrop, while Remus, James, and Peter made their own ways up.

And then they all just sat there, looking out at The Shrieking Shack. Remus didn't move, he sat back on his haunches, making no noise at all. The full moon shone down on the four animals, and everything was quiet. Sirius felt the slightly overwhelming sense of freedom again, and he truly felt like time had stood still, and that he could stay like this forever, side by side with his three best friends.

But sadly, as all good things must come to an end, the four friends found themselves running out of time. They needed to get back to the castle, before dawn, when Madam Pomfrey would come to collect Remus.

They arrived back in the Shack as the greenish glow of dawn appeared on the horizon. Sirius and James lead Remus back up the stairs to the top level. Remus seemed to realise that his friends were leaving, Sirius could see it in his dark eyes. Remus sniffed each one of them in a kind of farewell, before Sirius, James and Peter hurried of downstairs and back through the tunnel.

Still in their animal forms, they trenched back up to the wall of the Hogwarts castle. Sirius felt tired. It was that shaky sort of tired, that occurred after he had stayed up late, or had played a hard Quidditch match, when his body was only going on a weak supply of adrenaline.

They reached the tunnel back into Hogwarts when the sun had started to come over the horizon. Here they transformed back into humans. Sirius discovered a rip in the shoulder of his jacket where he had torn out some fur from the same place on a branch in the Forest. Their clothes merged with their animal transformation. His sense of smell had returned to normal, and still, after years, he still found the difference startling, that humans could be unaware of their surroundings in so many ways.

"Come on, we've gotten back too late", said James with a sense of urgency.

"We'll be right", smiled Sirius, "Filch is always up early, but since when have we ever gotten caught back late by him."

"I suppose, still, hurry up", agreed James.

He then went and retrieved the map and the cloak from under the bush. They threw the cloak over themselves and headed into the mouth of the tunnel.

The three friends reached the end of the tunnel, scrambling up the last part with the steep slope, James first, then Sirius, with Peter last. James stopped suddenly, causing Sirius to bump his head on the roof. He could feel his head pounding with pain, as though it had been cleaved in half. He swore loudly.

"Keep it down", James said in a rasping whisper.

"What's the hold-up", Sirius heard Peter ask from behind.

"Filch is on the corridor right above us, it says so on the Map", James replied.

"What the hell is he doing down here", said Sirius loudly, James raised a finger to his lips to be quiet, "I mean, his office is floors above the dungeons."

"He must have been doing a complete round of the school", gasped Peter.

"We'll just have to wait 'till he's gone", James whispered.

"We're going to be here forever", Sirius said exasperatedly, pressing his sore forehead into his hand.

They sat there for about ten minutes, but to Sirius, it seemed like an age. James was crouched up ahead, ever watchful over the Marauders' Map. Suddenly he gave a start, causing Sirius to hit his already aching head on the roof of the again for the second time, at which he swore angrily several times.

"What is it", asked Peter excitedly.

"It's Peeves, he's floating along the corridor towards Filch", James stopped and they heard an agitated shout from above, and then raucous laughter, followed by loud footsteps.

"Filch has left, Peeves has followed him by the looks of it", James said thankfully.

"Thank god for Peeves", said Sirius, although he'd never thought he'd say it.

James reached up to the square in the ceiling, and tapped it three times with his wand. Sirius heard the grinding of stone against stone and the block slid back to reveal a glow of torches, the ones that lined the dungeon corridor walls. James clambered out with the Map and Cloak. Sirius pulled himself up cringing as his head gave a particularly painful thump, and stood up in the dark stone-walled corridor to let Peter get out.

James put the cloak over them again and handed Sirius the Map. Sirius checked it, filch was up stairs, outside Dumbledore's office, no doubt waiting to complain about Peeves. All the other teachers were asleep.

Sirius, James, and Peter hurried up the spiralled staircase that lead out of the dungeons to the first floor. After that, they headed quickly as they could up the moving staircases, which conveniently lead from floor to floor, and did not do much moving on their way to Gryffindor tower. Then they finally reached the Fat Lady, who was sleeping soundly, or rather pretending to.

The boys took off the cloak and she jerked awake, "Well, well, somebody's been out of bed for far too long", she smirked.

"Rumblebark", said Sirius, ignoring her, he had not even been in bed at all, and he at least wanted thirty minutes worth of sleep, though he highly doubted he would get five.

"The password changed at midnight", the Fat Lady sighed in an unconvincingly apologetic way.

"Yeah right, and I can grow antlers", said James said sarcastically, which was quite ironic between him and his friends, who knew very well he could.

"Please just let us in", said Sirius, pulling a fake pleading face.

"Oh, alright, the password hasn't changed", she gave up, "But one of these days, you'll get caught out."

The portrait swung opened and the three of them stumbled into the common room. They crept up to the dormitory. James stowed the cloak and the Map in the trunk under his bed.

Not caring that everyone would probably get up in five minutes, Sirius kicked off his muddy shoes, scratched the back of his head and yawned. He flopped face down onto his bed with exhaustion, still in his filthy, soiled clothes, and closed his eyes... Just in time to hear the alarm go off on his magical radio.


	5. Until The Witching Hour

October had arrived and was almost over. The leaves on all the trees had now turned spectacular shades of auburn, red, orange and gold. The rain had started too, and it was getting far colder than it had been in the past months.

It was the night of Halloween, and the Great Hall of Hogwarts was buzzing with the sound of students, who were enjoying the festivities. Excited first years sat with friends, telling scary stories, and squealing in jittery fright. The older students laughed at their younger school-mates, remembering a time when they too had tried to scare each other with ghostly tales.

The Marauders were amongst these older pupils, sitting side by side, waiting for the food to sent up by the house elves in the kitchens below.

While he waited, Sirius admired the spooky decorations. He looked around to see that the floating candles on the ceiling had been replaced with carved pumpkins. The ceiling itself was dark and gloomy with stars shining through thick, black clouds. Live bats fluttered around the hall, screeching and swooping down upon unsuspecting students.

They sat down at the Gryffindor table with Gideon and Fabian.

"Well, they've really out done themselves this year", said Remus.

"Yeah", agreed Sirius before spotting a particularly tasty looking pumpkin pie and piling a large slice on to his plate.

Peter was greedily eyeing the bucket of giant orange, purple and black lollipops in the middle of the table. He grabbed two and started eating with great enthusiasm. Sirius turned away from the rather disgusting scene, not wanting to eat his pie anymore.

"So, I heard that the ghosts are going to do another one of those death re-enactments", said James.

"Yeah, Nearly Headless Nick, again..." said Sirius.

"I don't know why they don't choose a different ghost's death", said Remus.

"Probably something to do with tradition", sighed Sirius.

At that moment, Nearly Headless Nick floated up through the table right in front of them.

"Hello Nick!" said Peter wiping slimy bits of lollipop off his face.

"Hi", said Gideon.

"Hello young sirs, I heard you discussing my death re-enactment", he said slowly, then drawing himself up and looking sulkier than usual said, "But even though it was through my beheading that came to the end of my past life, I have been denied my joining of the headless hunt yet again, apparently I'm not headless enough".

"Don't let it get you down Nick", said James.

"Yeah", agreed Sirius, "They're just jealous you still have a neck, well, at least a few inches of one".

"Yes, well, good day to you all", Nick swept off his hat and floated away towards the stage.

The performance was the usual. It contain lots of shrieking and wailing and even more strokes of the axe. Sirius and his friends ate a lot of pumpkin flavoured baked goods and lollipops and went back to the Gryffindor tower.

##

"And then he took her head clean off and threw it into the village streets below!" said Sirius to the many gasps of the first years which he was telling the story to with James.

"After a while he was found and beheaded for the murder, but he still haunts the town of Dread Grove, always watching for great big gits like the mayor", said James and paused then continued, "Sometimes you can hear the last scream of the mayor's wife, before he chopped off her head, echoing through the town hall..."

Sirius and James had just finished telling a group of rather frightened looking first years the quiet gruesome story 'The Warlock of Dread Grove', with a few bits of input from Remus and Peter.

"That wasn't that scary", said an arrogant looking first year.

"Oh really, well we've seen some things that'd give you some nightmares all right", said James testily.

"Really like what? A werewolf or something? Like you would have", said the boy, smirking.

Sirius smiled furtively at James.

"We have encountered a few furry little problems before..." said Sirius, using his and James pet name for Remus's condition.

"If you're talking about your friend's misbehaving rabbit, then-", before he could continue complaining Sirius cut him off.

"I'm not, just you wait... Peeves likes pulling some very frightening pranks on little prats like you at Halloween", Sirius said darkly, "And sometimes it wakes up the Bloody Baron, he comes and finds Peeves, and trust me, when the Baron gets angry, some pretty nasty stuff happens".

"You're lying", said the first year.

"No he's not", said James, "Once, Peeves set a kid's hair on fire in the middle of the night. The ickle first year screamed so loud that the Baron came and saw what Peeves was up to. Let's just say, that when the first year saw the Baron in all out psycho phantom mode, he spoke fluent Mermish for a week and he had to be sent off to Saint Mungo's for specialist shock and haunting treatment".

The first year looked quite concerned for a moment, then shutting his dropped jaw he just said, "I don't believe you".

As he walked up to the dormitories Sirius called after him, "The horror starts around three in the morning, the witching hour".

"Yeah", added James, "That's when other spirits come back from the grave and all ghosts are their strongest".

At this a large group of the first years ran for the dormitories, looking anxious and scared.

Sirius and His friends sat up joking around with the others about ghosts and other things to do with Halloween. After a while everyone cleared out except for the four friends. Peter was dosing in his arm chair.

"I'm tired out guys, I'm going to bed", said Remus, rubbing his eyes. With that he trudged up the stairs to the dormitory.

"We should go and scare that little idiot first year", suggested Sirius.

"Yeah, get peeves in on the action", agreed James.

"I've got a better idea", Sirius cracked a grin, "Let's go find the Bloody Baron".

##

Sirius raced around the corner with James close at his heels. The Bloody Baron was floating after them with furious speed and making terrible wailing noises loud enough to wake the dead, even if he was dead himself.

"Well the plan worked!" shouted James.

"Yep, told you he wouldn't like it if we said that to him", half laughed Sirius as he bolted down the corridor at top speed, the air pushing back his long dark hair.

The two trouble makers raced up the staircases until they were about ten meters in front of the Fat Lady.

"Palminious!" yelled Sirius and the portrait swung back.

Sirius and James leapt through as if they were hurdlers. The Baron screeched and wailed in after them. At the top of the stairs to the boys' dormitories, James snatched up the invisibility cloak they had strategically placed there. Sirius and James kept running until they reached the first year boys' room. Sirius flung the door open with a bang and the two friends ran inside. James threw the cloak over them at just the right moment before the Baron swooped in, waking up the first years.

Sirius was trying not to let out his laughter as he saw the arrogant boy who had been rude to them before scream in terror and run from the dormitory. That moment McGonagall came in wearing a green tartan dressing gown looking extremely cross.

"Baron!" she shouted at the rampaging ghost, but he payed no heed to her, "BARON!"

At this the Baron stopped wailing and floated huffily out of the room through the ceiling.

"When I find out who brought the Baron in here, and in such a state... They will have detention for the rest of their Hogwarts schooling career!" McGonagall said with such irate vehemence that even Sirius felt a little worried even though he and James were hidden safely under the cloak.

McGonagall stormed out and as soon as the Sirius and James heard her talking to most of the Gryffindor house, who had been awoken by the racket, they crept back down the hallway to their dormitories under the cloak. Once they were inside, they fell onto their beds, roaring with laughter.


	6. A Bit Big-Headed

A Bit Big Headed

It was the start of November, and four weeks before the first game of the Quidditch season; Gryffindor verses Hufflepuff. James was putting the Gryffindor team through their paces with a new training regime, although in Sirius's opinion, Hufflepuff were just too easy to beat.

Meanwhile Sirius, James, and Remus were sitting in Defence class on the first day of November, a Monday.

Their Defence teacher was Professor Gatherey. He was tall with dark hair and wore a long grey coat with a little brown hat. Rumours went that he had spent two whole years in a werewolf community, and he wasn't even a werewolf. Others said that he had been an agent for a secret part of the Department of Law Enforcement. But the only other job he had ever mentioned was that he had been a curse-breaker for Gringotts Bank. He was teaching the class how to cast non-verbal spells.

"I want you to think about the spell in your head", Professor Gatherey instructed the students.

They had now paired up facing each other, wands at the ready. Sirius was facing James. All the students set to work trying to jinx and block each other without saying a word. At first, Sirius and James were whispering the curses out the side of their mouths, like almost everyone else in the room, but they actually found themselves trying during the last part of the lesson. The Hufflepuff Quidditch captain, Bertram Aubrey was trying so hard his eyes were popping.

Remus was the first to actually achieve it, much to the relief of Professor Gatherey. Sirius managed to next, followed by James.

A few others in the class managed the feat. Lily knocked Marlene over with her silent Stunning Spell, and a fellow Gryffindor, Ariella Hartley, had performed a voiceless charm on a Ravenclaw. Not long after, the lesson ended and they headed out to lunch in the grassy courtyard.

"Did you see Aubrey?" asked Sirius loudly, as Bertram and some Hufflepuffs sat down near them, "His eyes were nearly popping out of his fat head".

"Yeah", laughed James.

"Do you think our team will make it this game?" Sirius heard one of Bertram's friends ask.

"Oh, definitely", smiled Bertram, "The Gryffindor team was good last year, they had talent, and a good captain. But I think they're lacking in leadership this time round. Potter's just a pretty face, I'm afraid. Doesn't know what to do with his team, I've heard."

"And who've you heard that from?" asked Sirius loudly, standing and turning to face Bertram, "A bunch of Slytherin sods, no doubt."

"If you must know, I heard it from Macnair", said Bertram, "But that doesn't make what I just any less true."

"That I'm a bad team captain?" demanded James, "Or that I'm just a pretty face. Because, I mean, my face is quite wonderful, I agree, but I do have other things going for me too, you know."

"Which is more than he can say for himself, James", said Sirius, looking to goad Bertram, "Aubrey's ugly and stupid. Just look at his fat head. It's enormous. No wonder he's jealous, with us two beauties in front of him, he just can't compete!"

"Got a fat head, do I?," Aubrey said gruffly.

"You would know, or are you too stupid to tell?" James said coolly.

"Mabey he's just to scared of his own face to look in the mirror and check," Sirius notice a small crowd had gathered around. Mostly Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, considering the Quidditch match coming up, and the fact that both captains had joined the fight.

"Actually though, it's not now that I look at it", smiled Sirius, "Although I can always fix that. Engulfio!"

Sirius pointed his wand at Aubrey's head and hexed him. He watched with amusement as it started to swell. James did the same and the two of them stood there laughing.

"You four boys!", shouted a voice that unmistakably belonged to Professor McGonagall.

Sirius whipped around, his dark hair over his eyes, to see the angry Professor striding towards him and his friends. Aubrey's head had just gotten large enough for him to keel over with the weight of it.

"Yes, you four. My office, now, while I take this poor boy to the hospital wing," with that she waved her wand, making Aubrey hover above the ground, and headed off in the direction of the hospital wing.

##

Half an hour later, Sirius along with James, Remus and Peter, were in McGonagall's office receiving a long lecture on their 'unruly' behaviour. Sirius was leaning back in his chair haughtily, looking up at the ceiling with his head back, slightly annoyed that McGonagall was wasting his time. James was sitting next to him with his head resting on his fist, looking bored, while Remus sat on Sirius's other side with his hand on his brow, covering his eyes in exasperation. Peter was next to Remus, fidgeting and swinging his short legs.

"- not to mention that hex has been made illegal at Hogwarts for many a year", McGonagall turned to the four boys. Sirius looked at her, half impatient, half expecting. She seemed to have finished ranting and was now getting to the important part. Sirius could tell all this, having had lots of experience with teachers handing him out punishments, "I will take fifty points from Gryffindor for you two, Mr Potter and Mr Black, and twenty from Mr Lupin and Mr Pettigrew."

"Professor, Peter did nothing wrong", said Remus, receiving a look of grateful relief from his small friend.

"And neither did you", James said to Remus, in a somewhat forceful tone.

"Yeah! Professor, Remus didn't do anything-" Sirius's attempt at defending his friend was cut short by the Transfiguration teacher.

"That is exactly my point", McGonagall said, "Remus, I expect you to, as a prefect, make sure your friends act appropriately, and if they do not, I would hope you would enforce the school rules. This, sadly, does not seem to be the case though."

Remus hung his head a little, and looked at his feet.

McGonagall turned her back to them, looking out her office window. Sirius faked a look of disappointment towards Remus.

She continued, "And you will all attend four detentions each, starting tomorrow. I regret this, as your head of house, but I must punish you for your unlawful actions."

Sirius mouthed her last sentenced to James, and pulled a stupid face to go with it. James smiled back and Peter hardly supressed a chuckle, but Remus looked rather unimpressed.

McGonagall showed them out of her office and they walked into the cold corridor.

"Way to go guys, do you always have to be so immature?" Remus asked, turning on them.

"But Moony, what's life with out a little fun and jokes?" said Sirius.

"Besides, he deserved it, talking about the team like that", James said, with an air of finality.

##

The next day, a third-year came to the four friends with a note, while they were in the common room. It was from McGonagall. It informed them that after lessons that day, they were to go to detention. To Sirius's dismay he and James were in different detentions. James and Peter were stuck with Slughorn, and Sirius was off to help Professor Flitwick with Remus.

"Look Moony, you and I are off for lovely time with old Professor Flitwick," said Sirius to a half embarassed looking Remus.


	7. Detention

After their last lesson for the day, the group of four split up to go to their different detentions. Sirius lagged behind an impatient Remus along the chilly charms corridor. When they entered the charms classroom, Sirius saw tiny little Flitwick bustling around amongst stacks of parchment and files.

"Ah, boys, you're here to help me along with this are you?" the professor's cheerfully squeaky voice made it sound like the two of them had volunteered to help rather than being forced into it.

"Yes Professor," said Remus, looking at Sirius to do the same. He couldn't be bothered.

"Take these and go through them, put them into alphabetical order for me," Flitwick handed Sirius and Remus a stack of files each. They seemed to be charms marks for past students.

Sirius sighed and sat down at a desk in the middle of the class room, slouching back in his chair. Remus sat closer to the front, looking tiresome, but he sat up straight nonetheless.

For a while Sirius flipped through the bits of parchment. He looked around the room. There was a spider building a web in the corner and what look to be a puffenskein behind some shelves. Sirius looked at Flitwick, who was taking files from an assortment of boxes on one table, and putting them one by one, in order, into a box on another table. He would sort through the files until he came to the next one in the alphabet, and then turn around to put it in the other box.

The clock above the blackboard showed they had been in there for half an hour. Sirius was thinking of how long and boring it would be when he remembered that he had brought his two way mirror along with him.

The mirror was small and square, and was one of a pair, the other of which belonged to James. Sirius had bought the pair of mirrors from Diagon Alley at the start of his previous year at Hogwarts. The owner of one mirror could, at any time, say the name of the other mirror's owner into it. When this was done, the other person would be contacted through their own mirror, and an image of them would appear in the first person's mirror, and the two could talk with each other.

This was the method of communication that Sirius and James had been using while during detentions, and even over their holidays.

"James", Sirius whispered into his mirror.

"Padfoot!" James whispered back, his bespectacled face looking out of Sirius's mirror, "I was just about to see if you'd answer."

"What are you and Wormy doing?" asked Sirius, glancing away from the mirror to check if Flitwick was still busy, which he was.

"Sorting out old potion ingredients for Slughorn", said James.

"Sounds boring", deduced Sirius.

"Yes, it is quite dull. But I might be able to nick some good stuff that we- hang on- ", Sirius heard shuffling, as the mirror pointed away from James and towards what was, presumably, the dungeon floor, "Pete, don't touch tha- ah, too late."

Sirius listened as a cry of mingled surprise and pain sounded from his mirror. Flitwick heard the noise and turned to look at Sirius, who quickly lay his mirror flat behind the stack of files he was supposed to be sorting.

"S-sorry, Professor", said Sirius, pretending to yawn, "That was just me yawning. Bit tired, been studying late."

"Not to worry, not to worry.." muttered Flitwick, turning back to his files.

Remus turned his seat to give Sirius a quizzical look. Sirius shook his head, and Remus faced back to his own pile of papers.

"What just happened?" Sirius asked into his mirror, as James's face reappeared off to the side.

"Wormtail just touched a Bubotuba pod, it's got a bit nasty- here", Sirius watched as James's mirror turned to face Peter, who was looking down, appalled, at his hands, which were covered in angry, green pustules.

Sirius tried very hard to contain his laughter as Peter left the view of the mirror, calling out for Professor Slughorn.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Sirius, calming himself.

"He'll be fine. If those plants were anything too bad, they wouldn't let us handle them in Herbology, would they?" James explained, "What's going on on your end?"

"We're putting old Charms marks into order", said Sirius, adding just loud enough for Remus to hear, "Moony's being a good boy, doing his work."

"What?" questioned Remus in an undertone, shifting around in his seat.

"Mirror", mouthed Sirius in reply, at which Remus turned away, annoyance present on his face.

"I've got an idea, James, watch", Sirius whispered to James, then he turned his mirror around to face Flitwick, who was still sorting his files.

Flitwick placed one of his files in the box of sorted ones. Once he had stuck it in the right place, he moved back to his other boxes to look for the next file. While he was doing this, Sirius used his wand to levitate a file out from amongst the sorted papers. He let it hover over Flitwick's head, until the tiny Professor turned to place another file in the sorted box, at which Sirius levitated his file into one of the unsorted boxes.

He chuckled to himself, and heard James laugh a little from the mirror.

He continued to do this, with many sighs and pointed looks from Remus, until Flitwick looked up at the clock, seemingly surprised at the time. He had still not noticed that his files had been mixed around.

"I think Flitwick's about to let us go" said Sirius to James, "See you in the common room."

"Bye", said James, before Sirius shoved the mirror into his bag.

"Alright boys, tomorrow you'll be writing lines in Professor Slughorn's office," Flitwick dismissed them from the front of the room, "You are free to go."


	8. A Badger In Flight

It was mid-November and it had grown colder. The golden leaves had now started to die and fall off all the trees around Hogwarts, leaving a mess for Hagrid to clean up. The students of Hogwarts weren't too bothered about this though, because the first match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor verse Hufflepuff, was to be played the next day.

"Right, I'm going to bed", said James, as the marauders sat with the Prewett twins in front of the common room fire.

"I should too", agreed Sirius, "I need some rest for the match tomorrow. Although, Hufflepuffs aren't exactly tough opponents."

"You got that right," smiled Fabian.

"Yeah, they're lucky if their team can tell the two ends of a broom apart", laughed Gideon.

"Better get to bed before the captain kills me", Sirius interrupted as James started for the dormitories.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't kill you 'till after the match", laughed James.

"We'll try and get a pre-match party, but I doubt McGonagall will let us", called Fabian.

"Yeah, shame we couldn't last time. McGonagall had a fit and put us in detention when we asked", noted Gideon.

"Night", said Sirius, and went upstairs to bed.

##

"Oi! Sirius, mate", Sirius heard someone yelling and felt them shaking his arm. His brain was foggy, he didn't want to get up.

"Noooo, no, go away Kreacher, tell mum I'm still sleeping", Sirius mumbled.

"I'm not you're stupid house elf, I'm your Quidditch captain, you idiot!" said someone, Sirius opened his eyes to see James in his full Quidditch gear, looking irritated.

"I'm up, I'm up", said Sirius groggily, "Why are you up at five in the morning, the match doesn't start 'till ten?"

"Because it isn't five in the morning, it's twenty past nine, and there is only about thirty minutes for you to get ready and get down to the pitch", James explained quickly and exasperatedly.

"Oh Merlin!" said Sirius in surprise.

He jumped out of bed and dived underneath it to find his trunk. He grasped the handle and pulled it out. After he had yanked out his Quidditch robes, he rushed to get dressed. He was almost out the door when he noticed his boots were on the wrong feet. Finally, after putting his boots back on the right way, he stumbled down the stairs, pulling his keepers gloves on. He and James left the Gryffindor tower at top speed and made it to the changing rooms by the pitch with a little time left before the match.

"Glad you could join us", said Gideon.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence", laughed Fabian.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up", said Sirius in reply to the twins' joking.

James had ten minutes to talk to the team about their strategy for the match before they stepped out onto the pitch.

The light hit Sirius in the face as he walked out of the changing room at James's side, his broom over his shoulder. As the team emerged, the vast crowd of scarlet clad Gryffindors cheered their support from the stands. Some Ravenclaws added their voices to the ruckus, but many were supporting Hufflepuff, it seemed. There were barely any faces in the crowd that Sirius recognised as belonging in Slytherin. The only students from that house were younger. It appeared that the older students had opted to stay indoors, as the serpent house rarely shared an alliance with Hufflepuff, and they were certainly not going to cheer on their biggest rivals of the season- the Gryffindors.

Sirius and the rest of the team made their way to the center of the pitch, where the referee, Madam Helter was standing. They reached Madam Helter, along with the Hufflepuff team.

James and Aubrey shook hands. Even though James was giving the Hufflepuff evil eyes, Aubrey was looking back with a terrible, forced smile. Madam Helter blew her whistle and the two teams took to the air in their positions. Sirius flew up on his Thunderbow, hovering around the goal posts. The second whistle was blown and the game started, and with it, the commentary.

"They're off with the Quaffle, Gryffindor in possession, Prewett passes to Potter, who passes to the other Prewett", started Frank Longbottom, "Ah, and a nasty miss from Hufflepuff Keeper Harvey as Gryffindor scores the first goal! It's now ten to zero for Gryffindor".

The ball was given to Hufflepuff, and Sirius turned himself to face one of their oncoming Chasers. He smiled, happy to have some action down his end of the pitch. The Chaser kept coming, speeding up as he went. The sandy haired boy threw the Quaffle across the space between him and the center goal hoop. Sirius had seen it coming, had seen the boy's eyes flick in the same direction as the hoop, and he stopped the ball within inches of the goal, smacking it away with the tail of his broom.

"And a nice save there from Sirius Black, Gryffindor keeper", Frank said over the magical speaker.

Sirius did not spare a glance at the roaring crowd, he had to keep his eyes on the air. Looking down the pitch, he noticed something amiss. Gideon and Fabian were heading to the left of the pitch, when Sirius had specifically heard James tell them to keep to the right, only moments before. Now, however, McCormack was making wide motions with his arm for the twins to go to the left. James raced over on his broom, and corrected the mistake just before he had to take the ball.

As the game progressed, Sirius kept noticing that McCormack was neglecting his Beater duties more and more. Billson was looking exhausted as he hit away a Bludger that had been advancing on Fabian. While he looked on, Sirius started to get concerned, it was only a matter of time before someone got hit because of McCormack.

Another Hufflepuff Chaser started moving across the pitch, their sights locked on the left goal hoop. Sirius saw them, even though they probably knew they had no chance of scoring, it didn't deter them. They sped along, a very determined look on their face. The Chaser threw the ball and he grabbed it in mid-air, he then pegged it at the ground. He put his hands in the air, pointing to the sky in triumph, and the Hufflepuff, slumped on his broom, punched the air in disappointment. Sirius was almost certain that Gryffindor would find themselves with a victory to their name at the end of this match, and to add to this certainty, he had just seen Andrea Johnson speed off up the pitch. She had seen the Snitch.


	9. Fallen Keeper

James watched as Sirius stopped another goal. He really was lucky to have such a good Keeper for a friend. He was not, on the other hand, so lucky to have chosen the world's biggest git for one of his Beaters. McCormack was going to cost them the game, or at least someone's consciousness.

This thought was instantly driven from his mind as he saw Fabian coming towards him with the Quaffle. Fabian's eyes locked onto James's, and James got ready to catch the ball. Fabian raised his arm, Quaffle in hand, and made a wide throw, as he was forced to dodge a Bludger.

James managed to save the Quaffle from falling to the earth, and instantly rocketed along the pitch once the ball was securely under his arm. He had spotted Andrea swooping down on the Golden Snitch only seconds before, and he knew that all he, Gideon, and Fabian had to do was keep the Hufflepuffs busy while the Snitch was caught.

As James flew up the pitch, he had to duck underneath another Bludger. He saw Gideon to his right, and made a safe pass to him, the Quaffle soaring into his outstretched hands. As soon as he had passed off the ball, James pulled up and looked around for his two Beaters. Billson was hurrying after a Bludger, looking as if he was about to fall from his broom in exhaustion. McCormack was flying after Andrea, shouting directions at her as the Snitch duck and wove meters in front of the lithe Seeker.

"McCormack!" James shouted at the hulking seventh year, as he flew across the pitch towards him, "Chase! Get back to you position and do your job! Billson is getting murdered over there!"

McCormack nodded gruffly and hurried to help his fellow Beater. James turned his broom around sharply in his anger, searching the pitch for any sign of Andrea or the Snitch.

The dark-skinned girl was on the opposite side of the pitch, her braids whipping back in the wind as she closed in on the golden ball hovering barely a foot away from her face. Andrea reached out, and just as James heard Frank announce Gideon's fourth goal for the team, her fingers had closed around the struggling Snitch.

She pulled up, holding the ball in the air for all to see. As James flew towards her, wanting to congratulate his teammate on a job well done, he could hear the crowd shouting and cheering below. But there was something wrong. The noise wasn't ear-splitting and victorious. It seemed only half the crowd had noticed the win.

James looked down at his fellow Gryffindors, as well the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Slytherins alike. As he searched their faces, he noticed the noise dropping to startled whispers. Soon, every single person in the stand had turned to look at the end of the pitch opposite him. They were all staring in the direction of the goal hoops.

James heard the crack before he was able to turn and see Sirius fall from his broom, Bludger speeding away. The Keeper fell down towards the left goal hoop, his scarlet robes billowing around him. He seemed to have caught onto the goal hoop, and was dangling there, blood matted into his dark hair. James must have been in some state of shock, because he didn't rush forward. Sirius's hand slipped from the metal bar and he fell towards the earth, having lost consciousness. James heard a sickening crunch as both of his friend's legs crumpled beneath him when he hit the ground.


	10. A Run-In With Hartley

Sirius heard someone murmuring. He turned over and opened his eyes slightly. His vision was fuzzy. He could see a beautiful girl with long, golden, flowing hair sitting beside him. She must have been and angel.

"Am I dead?" he asked softly.

The beautiful angel didn't reply.

"No mate! But Peter thought you might have been", said a familiar voice from his other side, "See I told you he'd pull through, his legs aren't even broken anymore".

Sirius moved his head to turn slowly to his other side. Another person was there. He could make out their face; thin and tanned, with black, square glasses. It looked a lot like James Potter. It _was_ James Potter.

"What happened?" Sirius asked his best friend groggily.

"You took a Bludger to the head. McCormack's fault, stupid git", Explained James.

"I- did we lose?" Sirius groaned, sitting up on a soft white pillow which had been conveniently placed behind his head.

It appeared that he was in the Hospital Wing. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by the Gryffindor team, his friends, and some other supporters from the match. How long it had been since the match in question had finished, Sirius had no clue. All he knew was that his legs felt slightly numb, and that he had a bandage around his head. He looked down and realised that he was wearing his Quidditch robes, which were spattered with dirt and blood.

"No, it's okay, Andrea caught the Snitch just before you were hit", said Remus, who was also there. Andrea nodded to him from the back of the group surrounding his bed.

"Hit?" Sirius asked, he was unsure of what had happened to him.

"By a Bludger, what else do you think?" said James.

"Blimey, I don't feel like it" Sirius felt the bandage around his head. His skull felt a little tender, but other than that, he felt no effect of supposedly being hit by a Bludger.

"That's because Madam Pomfrey healed you straight away", explained Peter, who was sitting in a chair beside Remus, "She said something about bone damage being easy to fix".

"I think she told us that you would be okay", started Remus, "because you only had broken bones in your legs, which weren't shattered too badly, miraculously, and that your skull was only minorly fractured. Basically, soft tissue damage was not a big issue, and she healed you as soon as you came in, you should be fine now. How's your head, by the way?"

"It's- it's fine" as Sirius took in Remus's explanation, his recollections of previous events started to trickle back into his un-fogging mind.

He remembered stopping the last goal. He also remembered a flash of grey speeding towards him, followed by an explosion of pain in the left side of his head. He even thought that he could vaguely recall hanging onto the goal hoop for dear life, and then slipping into unconsciousness.

"So I fell from the goal hoop? And then broke my legs?" he asked his friends.

"Yeah" said Frank, "It looked really painful".

"But you were passed out, weren't you?" asked Peter, looking anxious at the thought of being awake while suffering such an injury.

"Well, you're okay now, at least", said James, and Sirius recognised a look of suppressed anger on his friend's face, "No thanks to that sod, McCormack".

"It was his fault!" Sirius remembered the Beater's poor performance, "Billson had to hit them all away! He had his eyes on the other Bludger when the other hit me in the side of my bloody head! When I get out of here, I swear on Merlin's beard, I'm going to kill that prat!"

"No need, I kicked him off the team, right in front of everyone", said James, "His ego's quite damaged. Although his face can't be spoken for yet..."

"So, you were saying about my legs?" Sirius asked them urgently.

"Well you were unconscious, so you shouldn't have felt it..." James said slowly.

"When you let go of the goal post, you, um, kind of fell down to the ground snapping your legs in the process", Remus followed, "James swore he heard the crunch".

Peter said nothing. He just looked green at the thought of it.

"Oh.." Sirius ripped back the covers to reveal a pair of perfectly fine legs.

He moved them and bent them back and forth. They worked great too. He felt his head again, and it remained in it's previous state of only slight tenderness.

"Madam Pomfrey pulled out all the stocks, you're good as new", said James happily.

Sirius turned back around to see that the angel was actually a pretty girl with long blonde hair sitting in a chair, surrounded by the Quidditch team and people who he assumed were her friends. He wondered if Madam Pomfrey would let him out now that he was all mended, but decided that it really didn't matter if she would or not, because he felt fine, and the others had assured him that he had been healed properly.

"Well now that everything isn't broken anymore, let's go celebrate", Sirius said happily.

"Of course", agreed James.

The whole group surrounding the bed erupted into excited talking. Gideon and Fabian started making plans then and there to retrieve large stocks of butterbeer from the kitchens.

"Out! Out!" shouted and annoyed looking Madam Pomfrey, who had just emerged from her office at the sound of voices.

"Even me?" asked Sirius incredulously.

"Yes, just get out, you're too noisy!" she said.

Sirius jumped out of bed and strode out of hospital wing. He walked along with James, Remus and Peter, while the others hurried past the four of them, wanting to get to the post-match party that had possibly already half started.

"Hey, Gideon! Wait up", called James to the red haired boy, "Alright if I come with you and Fabian to the kitchens? I know a few snacks the House Elves are great at making, I need to ask for some".

Gideon nodded his consent.

"See you in a bit, mate", said James to Sirius, flashing him a smile and hurrying after the twins.

"Wait for me!" called Peter, dashing after the three others.

Remus sighed, "Mind if I go with them?"

"No, I think I'll take it slow to the tower", said Sirius, whose legs were feeling strange and slightly wobbly.

"Are you sure?" Remus asked again, "It's just that I have a few requests for the kitchen too".

"I'm fine, go ahead", Sirius said, and Remus started to walk away quickly, "Just be sure to get me some of those eclairs!"

"Okay!" Remus called back, as he descended a flight of stairs.

Sirius was left to continue his somewhat slow journey to the Gryffindor tower by himself. He looked down at his legs as he walked. Nothing about them looked off, he assumed that the strange feeling in them was simply from the stress of healing completely in the space of a few hours. As he looked, he noticed that his robes were quite disgusting. There was blood down the front, starting at his left shoulder, from where his head had been hit. His hair was a bit matted on the left side too. He pulled off his keeper gloves and held them in one hand, while he attempted to comb some of his blood from his hair with the other. He was picking a stray leaf from behind his ear when he was knocked off his feet by someone.

He sat up, momentarily disorientated. The person who had run into him had sent his Keeper gloves flying. A brown shoulder bag lay on the floor next to the person who had made him fall over. It was Ariella Hartley, a girl with whom Sirius shared many of his classes. She was wearing a Gryffindor scarf and a red cardigan, evidently dressed for the match, and her dark brown hair was up in a pony-tail.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, getting up from the floor and gathering her bag onto her shoulder.

"It's alright", said Sirius, standing up himself, "I'm used to falling today".

"Ha, yeah", smiled Ariella. Sirius had never really noticed her before, but now that he looked at her smiling face, he saw that she was actually quite good-looking, "You haven't seen my friend, have you? I was looking for her. Kass Jarven?"

"Hm?" Sirius broke away from looking into her warm blue eyes, "I- no sorry. She's the short blonde one, right?"

"Yes, I suppose you could call her that", Ariella laughed a little, "Well, if you haven't seen her then-"

"No, wait- sorry" Sirius remembered the pretty blond girl from the hospital wing, and recognised her as Ariella's friend, "She headed back to the common room with the others who were in the hospital wing with me. I'm heading there now, if you want to come with me".

"Sure" said Ariella, hoisting her bag up a little higher on her shoulder and starting to walk along-side Sirius.

"Aren't you usually hanging around with James Potter and his friends?" asked Ariella, as they neared the common room.

"Yeah, but they've gone to the kitchens" explained Sirius, walking up some stairs.

"I thought you would have gone too", said Ariella.

"My legs weren't up too it yet" he smiled.

"I see", said Ariella, as they stopped outside the Fat Lady's portrait, "Nissius".

She gave the password, and the Fat Lady swung open to reveal a rather fine post-match party, with laughter and loud music.

"See you, then" Ariella smiled again, before disappearing into the growing mass of dancing bodies that had filled the common room.

##

Half an hour later, after James, Gideon, Fabian, Remus, and Peter had raided the kitchens (bringing back Sirius's eclairs, much to his happiness), the post-match party was in full swing. A large gramophone sat in the corner playing loud music, a song from the popular wizarding punk band, the Six Jinxes. Little coloured musical notes floated out of the brass funnel and over the crowd of dancing Gryffindors.

Sirius was sitting in a squashy armchair by the fire with James, Remus, and Peter, finishing his butterbeer so that he could go and join the dancing. Other people had gathered around him, eager to learn of his battle with the Bludger.

"Sirius, tell us about that goal you stopped", said Miranda Grollings, who had been following him around for the last twenty minutes.

Sirius was not quite sure which goal she meant, and was growing tired of her constant admiring looks, so he downed that last of his butterbeer and got up. He left the chairs for the middle of the room, which substituted for the dance floor, with James, Remus, and Peter on his heels.

"Hey", Sirius said over the loud guitar playing from the gramophone, "Do you know that girl over there?"

"Which girl do you mean?" said James, smirking, "In case you haven't noticed, there are quite a few following you around..."

"No, I mean Ariella Hartley", explained Sirius, "She's in Potions with us".

"Oh. Nope, sorry mate, can't say I've spoken to her more than once", James said.

"I think she has Astrology with me", said Remus slowly.

"Right, well I'm going to talk to her", said Sirius.

Sirius made his way through the party, receiving pats on the back form his fellow Gryffindors as he went. He came to a corner where Ariella was sitting by herself.

"Hey", he said to her, "You enjoying the party?"

"Hello again", she said, "And yes, the party is pretty top notch".

"Where is your friend, Kass?" Sirius asked, wondering why Ariella was alone.

Ariella smiled wryly and nodded to where Kass was, sitting in an armchair, kissing a boy named Nicholas Faring.

"Oh", he said, raising his eyebrows and sitting himself down next to Ariella.

"So, what did you want?" she asked, looking at him inquiringly.

"I- nothing. I just thought I'd say hello", when Sirius thought about it, he didn't really know why he'd come over to talk to her. It wasn't like he was her friend, and now he felt slightly awkward, at a loss for something to say.

"Well that's very nice of you" she smiled.

"Do- do you want to dance?" Sirius asked, before knowing he would say it.

"With you? Or- or just in general?" asked Ariella, a strange look of unsureness crossing her face.

"It doesn't matter actually. I- I mean-" Sirius exhaled, he did not usually speak this awkwardly with people, "I just hope you're enjoying the party".

"Oh, yeah, I am, thanks" Ariella smiled at him again.

He just sort of backed away into the mass of dancing students, trying to find his way back to his friends. When he found Peter and Remus, they both looked slightly exasperated- Remus the most. Peter looked a little amused. Sirius gave them a bewildered look, at which Remus motioned towards the foot of the girls' dormitory stairs. James stood there, looking down-hearted, and when Sirius's eyes flashed towards the entrance of the dormitories, he caught a glimpse of dark red hair before the door slammed.


	11. A New Friendship

"Padfoot...Padfoot...PADFOOT!" someone shouted in Sirius's ear, causing him to roll out of bed in fright.

"Aaaggggh!" he yelled, as he landed on the floor in a tangle of sheets, only to look up and see that it was James who had woken him.

"It's time to get up. I don't want to be late for the Hogsmeade visit", said James, who was rugged up in his Gryffindor scarf and brown jacket.

Sirius suddenly remebered that today had been set for the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. All the events of yesterday's Quidditch match had driven it from his mind.

"I'll get up, but just you wait, I won't forget this..." he threatened, tugging himself free of the bed sheets.

Sirius rushed to get dressed. He changed from his pyjamas and into some warm clothes, readying himself for the heavy sleet that had been thankfully absent at the match, but had been falling for all the week before, and had now returned, hammering the castle in earnest.

Grabbing his leather jacket from the end of his bed, he followed James as they rushed out of the dormitory, making their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Sirius! Are you coming to Zonko's with us today?" Peter greeted him jovially, as he and James reached where Peter was sitting with Remus at the Gryffindor table.

" 'Course I am, I need to pick up those fireworks we're going to set off outside the Slytherin common room", said Sirius, spreading marmalade on his toast.

"Oh, yeah, can't believe I nearly forgot about that", said James, piling bacon onto his plate, "We're doing it Wednesday, right?"

"That's when we planned", said Remus from behind a copy of the _Daily Prophet,_ which sported a headline telling of the large Muggle death toll, attributed to greatly by the Death Eaters.

"Why'd you ask, anyway Pete?" Sirius said, turning to Peter.

"I'd thought you might have been going with someone else", Peter replied, cutting into his scrambled eggs.

"Who else would I go with?" said Sirius, baffled by Peter's assumption, "I want to get ready for that prank with you three".

"I think you know who Peter means", said Remus matter-of-factually from over the top of his _Prophet,_ "You were talking to them last night".

"Whfm?" said James through a mouth full of bacon.

"While you were busy arguing fruitlessly with Lily, Sirius went and had a lovely chat with Ariella Hartley", explained Remus, much to Sirius's dismay.

"Evans and I were not- I- nevermind", sighed James, "What did you talk to her about?"

"I just asked if she was enjoying the party, since us four practically organised it", said Sirius, bemused by his friends. He might have thought Ariella had looked pretty last night, but he wasn't interested in her in that way. He was just checking if she had found her friend, "I don't see how that points to me going to Hogsmeade with her".

"I guess it doesn't", said Peter, looking slightly abashed for thinking it.

"Sirius, you asked us if we knew her, and then you spent a bit of time talking to her", said Remus, "It is a normal conclusion to come to to think that you were interested in her".

"Ariella ran into me earlier, and asked me if I had seen one of her friends", Sirius explained, somewhat exasperated, "I was just making sure she had found her friend".

"It seemed a little different to me, that's all", said Remus, before returning to reading the _Prophet._

"Fine, whatever", sighed Sirius, "I just want to go to Hogsmeade, buy the fireworks and a giant bag of sweets, and come back to the castle. The weather is awful out there".

"Changing the subject to the weather? It's a sign", James chuckled quietly to Sirius, elbowing his friend's arm, receiving a shove in return.

The four finished their breakfast in silence, then headed out into the Entrance Hall. There, they joined the line of students filing out and into the cold, but only after they had been marked off the list by Filch the caretaker.

The closer they moved towards him, the clearer Sirius could see that Filch was searching each student as they left. He had a Secrecy Sensor, and was prodding them here and there, looking for contraband items.

"Ouch", said Peter, as Filch poked him and he ran after Sirius, Remus, and James.

"You'd think he'd be better off checking us when we're coming back in", said James as Sirius and their friends walked down the path with the many other students, towards the high Hogwarts gates.

"Why would he even bother checking? Like we're going to try and smuggle something out", Sirius sighed.

"I think that's exactly what he thinks", said Remus as the four friends grew closer to the high gates topped with winged boars.

"Well then he's stupid", said Sirius.

"I can't deny that..." smiled Remus.

"No, but, what if someone _was_ trying to sneak something out ", James said thoughtfully as they exited through the gates.

"Like what?" asked Peter.

"I don't know. Something to give to someone in the village", James said, "Like, say, a love potion to slip into someone's butterbeer. While you're talking to them, just, you know, slip it in".

"You'd know all about that", Sirius sneered at his friend, "Tried that on Lily yet?"

"Shut up Padfoot- you know that's not something I'd use to get attention", James said, suddenly irritable, hunching his shoulders and walking ahead into the outskirts of Hogsmeade village which lay before them.

Sirius laughed along with Peter while Remus smiled and rolled his eyes. They came to the main street in hardly any time.

"James? Can you see Zonko's up ahead?" Sirius called out to his friend, "I want to get out of this blasted sleet."

"Yeah! Just up here!" James called back through the thickening sleet.

The sleet poured down from the clouds above in icy chunks, pummeling Sirius as he held the door open to Zonko's Joke Shop, following James, Peter, and Remus inside. Once he was out of the cold, Sirius took a moment to shake the ice from his jacket and scarf, while looking around the shop. There were bright coloured gas lamps stationed around the walls, which were lined with shelves upon shelves of the finest practical joking goods.

Peter was looking excited and Sirius could tell he was itching to get his hands on some of the magical equipment. James smiled and seemed to drink in the familiar scene, as if he felt some kind of profound sense of belonging. Remus was already observing a small package in a corner, reading it intensely and unaware of the goings on around him, as he always was when engrossed in something.

Sirius, however, only had eyes for one thing, and that one thing was a giant box of Dr Filibuster's fireworks. The box sat among its fellows high on a shelf on the second level of the shop. Sirius made his way to the magnificently coloured display.

Reaching the shelf by going up a narrow staircase cluttered with other shoppers, Sirius grabbed the lairy box and took it from the shelf. It was rather heavy in his hands, and the front of the package boasted a picture of thirty-six different pieces of pyrotechnics.

"Got it!" he called down to James, who was rifling through a bin of sale items.

"Great!" James called back, pulling a squawking rubber goose from the bin and tucking it under his arm.

As Sirius turned around with the fireworks in hand, he caught sight of something vividly purple through the sleet outside. He peered out the shop window from his high point on the second landing. It was Ariella Hartley, walking alone through the relentless ice pouring from the sky, her bright jumper shining like a beacon through the harsh weather. Sirius thought she looked a little sad, but he brushed the thought aside, as she was possibly just watching her footing on the slippery road. Sirius hoisted the box of fireworks under his arm and descended the stairs to meet James in the front of the shop.

"What is that supposed to be?" he asked James, motioning to the rubber goose that was under his arm.

"It sings", James said simply.

"That's great, but why? Why are you buying it?" Sirius asked him.

"I'm going to stick it under the cushions on one of the armchairs in the common room", explained James, "As soon as someone sits on it, they'll get a wailing rendition of _Odo The Hero_ "

"Simple but effective, James", Sirius said approvingly, "I like it".

"And I like this", said Remus, flashing them a small package apparently containing a talking tea cup.

"Now, Remus, what have I told you about playing nasty tricks on your mother?" asked Sirius, feigning a look of disappointment.

"It's not for her, you idiot, it's for me", said Remus, "I think it would be brilliant to have a tea cup that can talk to you"

"Only way you can have a good conversation?" Peter asked, joining the others as they started for the front counter.

"I don't need it because I'm lonely, Wormy, I already have a nice group of morons to keep me company. No, I do need to have intelligent chats though, so that's why I'm buying it", Remus explained.

"Just because I'm buying these fireworks for the Slytherin common room, doesn't mean it's their sole purpose..." Sirius said threateningly to Remus.

"Alright, alright. Girls. Calm down." said James as he handed the rubber chicken to the shop assistant behind the counter.

Sirius and his friends bought their respective joke products and left the warm and colourful joke shop for the frosty street outside. Trudging through the thick sleet, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter made their way down the road towards the Three Broomsticks.

Thankful for refuge from the dreadful weather, the four boys pushed the door open as soon as they reached the little pub. Inside it was warm. There was a fire crackling in its grate at the back of the room, casting a golden glow over everything in the pub, and compensating for the lack of light coming from the windows, which only showed the dark and grey skies outside.

The barmaid, Madam Rosemerta, was behind the bar up the front of the room, where many people were being served various drinks. There were rather a lot of students in the pub, sheltering from the downpour as Sirius and his friends were.

Sirius looked around the pub, searching for a table where they could sit. While James left to get himself and the others some butterbeer, Sirius lead Remus and Peter towards an empty table in the middle of the room that he had managed to scout out.

Sirius cast his eyes around the pub. Most of the patrons were Hogwarts students, as Sirius had seen when he had first walked in. A group of rough looking warlocks were gathered at the bar, talking loudly about a prize Hippogriff one of them had bought at a faire. Sirius turned his gaze to the portion of the room behind his own table.

A glimpse of bright purple told him that he had us just spotted Ariella Hartley out of the corner of his eye. Looking back, he saw her sitting by herself at a dimly lit table, looking slightly lonely.

"I'll be back in a minute", Sirius said to Remus and Peter as he got up from his seat, "And keep out of my butterbeer, Wortmail."

Sirius only received bewildered looks from his friends. Turning, he made for the back of the room. Sirius reached Ariella's table, looking down at the solitary girl.

"Hello", Ariella said, seeming a little surprised to see Sirius standing at her table.

"Mind if I sit here?" Sirius asked, pulling out a chair once Ariella mentioned that it was fine.

"Where're your friends?" Ariella asked Sirius, "I thought you'd be sitting with them."

"Don't worry about them", Sirius said to her, "I couldn't help but notice that you were all alone, so I guess I came to see if you wanted company."

"It doesn't really matter, I'm going to back to the castle after this", Ariella said.

"I thought that you usually sit with that friend of yours, Kass, is it?" Sirius asked Ariella, "I've seen you sit with her loads of times in here before."

"Oh, she had something else on, she couldn't come to the village with me" Ariella said. There was something strange in here voice that sounded like frustration.

Sirius remembered her tone from the Quidditch post-match party earlier that term, when her friend couldn't find time to spend with Ariella in that instance either.

"She's not with boyfriend of hers is she? The one from the party?" Sirius asked Ariella.

"Yeah, she is" Ariella sighed, "I guess I just wish she would stop for a bit and hang out with me. But you probably don't really want to hear me complain about it, do you?"

Ariella laughed uneasily, and Sirius joked, "Why else would I have come here? Listening to people and their problems makes my day."

Ariella laughed again, this time at his joking. Sirius was quite glad that this conversation with Ariella was not nearly as awkward as the last.

"No, usually I'd tell them to shut up, but I want to fix your problem", Sirius said to Ariella, getting up from his seat, "Tell you what, I wanted to stop in at Honeydukes on the way out, how about you come along?"

"What about your friends, won't they want to go with you?" Ariella asked him.

"Like I said, they'll be fine, they keep each other company", Sirius replied, and when Ariella still seemed reluctant he added, "I'll buy you a cockroach cluster."

"Damn you, you found my weakness!" Ariella cried, standing up too.

"Well come on then, let's get going before the whole village gets buried in sleet", Sirius adjusted his scarf while Ariella grabbed her bag from her chair.

As they made their way to the door and outside, Sirius asked, "Really though, cockroach clusters?"

"Merlin no, I was just messing around, they're most awful things" Ariella said, screwing her face up at the thought of the disgusting sweets.

 **##**

After a trip to Honeydukes, where Sirius bought a bag of sweets, including peppermint imps for Ariella, the two of them returned to Hogwarts. They went back to Gryffindor tower, where they played wizard's chess and exploding snap. Ariella had a habit of losing in exploding snap, but she beat Sirius at chess at least twice- quite a feat, considering he had been playing since childhood.

By the time James, Remus, and Peter arrived in the common room, Sirius and Ariella had eaten most of the sweets and were engaged in yet another heated match of chess, which ended in Ariella's bishop walloping Sirius's king around the head with his staff.

Once this particularly violent end to the match played out, Ariella decided to go and see if she could find her friend, Kass.

"Thanks for the game, and the imps too", Ariella said to Sirius as she stood up and collected her bag from the floor, "I'll probably see you later, at dinner".

With that, Ariella left the common room through the portrait hole. Sirius packed away the wizard's chess set and walked over to where his three fellow Marauders were playing their own game of exploding snap.

"Well, here he is" said James, looking up at Sirius from where he sat on the carpet, "Where were you? I bought you a butterbeer and I had to drink it because you weren't there."

"A real shame, that must have been, Prongs. More butterbeer for you, terrible", Sirius said sarcastically, as he plonked into an armchair next to his friends.

"That's beside the point, you left us to go off with Ariella Hartley", Said James, "I have every right to be offended."

"He does have a point, Sirius", Remus said from behind his deck of cards, "Speaking of points, Wormtail's assumption that you are interested in and involved with Ariella has been proven somewhat correct."

"Moony, I am insulted that you think I would ever abandon my friends for romantic pursuits," Sirius tossed his head back dramatically, though instantly becoming serious a second later, "But I don't fancy her, if that's what you lot are still on about."

"Moony, six Galleons says he does", said James, sitting one of his cards on the playing space.

"James, if I am putting my money on anything, it is that Sirius does fancy Ariella Hartley, so I can't really bet against you, can I?" Remus explained while waiting for Peter to place a card down.

"Well we need someone to bet against", said James exasperatedly.

"Don't look at me" said Sirius, "I'm the poor bloke you're betting on, so I can't do anything."

"Fine", sighed Peter, throwing a card down, "I'll bet against it. I'll just have to make sure I set aside twelve Galleons for when I lose."

"Because there's no question that you will, the way today's trip went", said James, while he watched sceptically from behind his glasses as Remus placed down another card.

"That's ridiculous, Prongs", Sirius said, James choosing a card to lay down on the pile, "I am going to eat dinner with Gideon and Fabian tonight, since you lot are taking out stakes based on my fictitious feelings towards certain people."

"Whatever you say, Padfoot, you always come back to us, like a lost puppy", James sniggered.

However, James's amusement at his own pun soon turned to angry swearing, as the card he had just lay down on the pile exploded, burning his fingertips.

Sirius was being entirely honest with his friends when he said their accusations were untrue. He didn't think he had any feelings along those lines for Ariella. But he did know that he had taken a liking to her. Talking and joking with her that afternoon had shown him a rather witty, funny, and intelligent side of her. And quite aside from what his friends might have gathered from the time that he and Ariella had spent together, Sirius had found that a new friendship was beginning.


	12. A Christmas To Forget

November trickled into December and the icy sleet that had poured relentlessly upon the Marauders during their first visit to Hogsmead had disappeared, being replaced by constantly thickening layers of snow. Students now wore their long cloaks every hour of the day, and wrapped themselves in house scarves and warm gloves. A nasty bout of colds had been going around, but it was nothing that Madame Pomfrey couldn't handle.

Through the cold weather, the Marauders had been keeping busy with school work, regular pranking, and full moon adventures. The amount of time they spent inside the castle due to the hostile weather meant that Sirius had been spending more time with Ariella. The two had become quite good friends over that last weeks, helping each other study, and playing the odd game of wizard's chess when they could fit it in. As it turned out, Ariella was brilliant at Astronomy, and not only did she help Sirius with homework for that class, but she had made a habit of comparing notes with Remus, who had a great interest in the subject.

Everything was cheerful around the castle, as the festive season was drawing nearer, and Christmas decorations were going up all around Hogwarts. James and Sirius had even masterminded a prank that the Marauders would carry out quite soon, one that was sure to draw many laughs from their fellow students.

Only one thing was dampening Sirius's mood, and that was the thought of returning home for the holidays, a thought that had been lingering at edges of his mind for the past two weeks. He tried to stop himself from straying down that path of thought, keeping his mind on other things. But it was hard to ignore the looming date on which he would return to his hateful family, when an abrupt reminder of exactly that landed in his breakfast one frosty morning, dropped there by the Black family owl, Vultoria.

He turned the letter over, flicking marmalade off one corner, and read the address. He knew that it couldn't have been from anyone else other than his parents when he saw the dark owl swoop in over his morning meal. Nevertheless, he felt as though his heart had sunk through the floor when he read the words written in the spindly scribe he knew to be his mother's. Sirius tore open the thick envelope without hesitation, wanting to get it over and done with, so that he could leave the letter scrunched up on the table for the House Elves to clear away. The parchment inside was covered in the same spidery hand writing as was on the back of the envelope, it read:

 _Sirius,_

 _I expect you home on the train with your brother for these Christmas holidays. We are having your Uncle Alphard, Uncle Cygnus, and Aunt Druella_ _over to our house for Christmas dinner, along with Narcissa and her new fiancé, Lucius Malfoy. Since this will be a civilized proceeding, you may well want to practice you manners beforehand, as we don't want it to go as awfully as our last dinner with extended family did._

 _Regulus has told me that you continue to extend your friendship to every piece of filth that walks the halls of your school. I hear from your brother, that along with the usual riff raff, you have been associating with yet another disgusting half-blood. This is the kind of appalling behaviour that your father and I will not stand for, so I forbid you to speak with this new friend anymore. Stop fraternising with those who are unworthy of speaking to, or associating with, any member of our noble blooded family. Follow your brother's example and behave as a proper member of the noble house of Black_ _should behave._

 _Your mother,_

 _Walburga Black_

Sirius stared down at the letter in disgust. It infuriated him every time he read one of his letters from home. Rather than warm words with stories from family like the other students received, Sirius was to only ever find himself reading a telling off, demands that he stop being such a useless person, and outrageous insults towards his friends. Sirius just tried to ignore these letters, but this one was rather vile, and words like 'filth' and 'disgusting half-blood' circled inside his head. Deciding his parents could stick their stupid beliefs where Sirius would never have to hear them again, he balled the letter up in his hand.

"Letter from your mum, I take it", said James from beside him, "How was it? Was it- you know- too awful?"

Sirius thought for a second about this, before coming to the conclusion that the letter was atrocious. He drew his wand, and muttering the incantation, pointed it at the scrunched up letter he was holding aloft between his finger and thumb, setting it alight in a ball of flame.

"Not good, then", James said, looking slightly taken aback, while Sirius threw the charred lump of parchment into a nearby pot of porridge.

"She's started on you lot again", said Sirius angrily, talking to James, as well as Remus and Peter, who were listening as well, "Not to mention 'every piece of filth that walks the halls of your school'. But, we can have a nice chat about it when I come home on the train with my perfect example of a wonderful brother."

Sirius stood up and shifted his book bag onto his shoulder. He turned to leave the Hall for class without another word when he heard a shout behind him.

"Mr Black!" it was Professor McGonagall, running down from the staff table towards him, "You're not to-"

"Please Professor, I know. Don't set things on fire in the Great Hall", Sirius interrupted her, "I've been there before, and it won't stop me from doing it."

"Then perhaps detention will change your mind", said Professor McGonagall, her nostrils flared and her lips tight, "Tuesday after the Christmas break, five o'clock, my office."

"Fine, Professor, if that makes you feel better", Sirius said.

He really just wanted to get to class, and he wasn't in the mood to discuss terms of his detention with her. He turned away and left the Great Hall before McGonagall could reprimand him for speaking out of turn.

 **##**

The last few days of the term went far too quickly for Sirius's liking, and he soon found himself sitting in front of the fire place late at night on his last day at Hogwarts before the Christmas holidays. He was the last one up of all his friends, and with good reason. He wanted to wrap the gifts he had bought them away from their eyes. This also provided a reason for him not to go to sleep, as these last few nights had been spent mostly lying awake, thinking about the grim fate that awaited him over Christmas. It was rare for Sirius to miss out on any sleep, but if he was worried about something, he somehow found the energy to barely rest, running on adrenaline for days on end from time to time.

He was beginning to get tired, but he still had to wrap the presents. There was a can of broom polish for James, a book about keeping Grindilows for Remus, and a jumbo-box of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans for Peter. Sirius had tried to think of something Ariella might have wanted, but couldn't come up with much, so he had settled to buy her another packet of peppermint imps.

He wrapped all the gifts in nice magical Christmas paper that was cinnamon scented and sung 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs' whenever it was torn. He thought it was a little corny, but it was sure to be funny.

Another reason that he was up so late was that he and his friends had prepared the prank, which they had planned earlier in the week, just before he had sat down to wrap the presents.

After writing out the last words on the final Christmas card, Sirius retired to his dormitory, where he quietly hid the presents under his bed where his trunk was stowed away. He was going to give the presents out tomorrow on the train, since all his friends were going to go home for Christmas.

 **##**

Sirius woke up the next morning to the sounds of loud conversation, opening his eyes to see all the other inhabitants of his dormitory wide awake. Sirius didn't have much of an idea as to when he had fallen asleep last night, but he guessed he must have drifted off eventually.

"Good, you're up, Padfoot", James said from where he sat on the floor, piling messily folded clothes into his school trunk, "Now tell me, which socks should I leave here?"

"Maybe those dorky ones with the little Puffinskeins on them", smiled Sirius, sitting up in bed and pulling some clothes out of his trunk to wear for the day.

"Hey-" retorted James, "My mother packed them, not me!"

"Oh, little baby Jamesy need his mummy to choose his socks for him", laughed Sirius, in the midst of pulling his Six Jinxes band t-shirt down over his head.

"Shut up Padfoot!" said James, half-heartedly throwing the socks at Sirius.

Sirius threw his friend's socks aside and started packing his own belongings haphazardly into his trunk. After he had made sure everything was put away, he retrieved the presents from where he had stashed them the previous night.

"Oi! James", said Sirius, throwing the package at James, who grabbed it from the air with sharp reflexes, "Heads up Moony!"

Remus's present caught him by surprise, and the boy only just managed to wrap his fingers around it before toppling of his bed covers and onto the floor.

"Here you go, I've got one for you too, Wormtail", he handed the parcel to Peter, who was seated by his own trunk on the floor beside Sirius.

Sirius's friends had found gifts for him in return. James had purchased for him a pair of strong quality dragon-hide Keeper's gloves. Remus had sought out a second-hand book on Muggle motor mechanics, and Peter had put together a small selection of wizarding sweets which he gifted to Sirius.

After packing and exchanging gifts, the four friends headed down to breakfast, along with Gideon, Fabian, and Frank, before leaving the castle for the Hogsmead train station. As Sirius exited the doors to the Entrance Hall and stepped out into the crisp, cold air, he saw that he and his friends' prank had been noticed.

A large crowd of students had gathered along the winding path that lead through the grounds and to the gates of the school. All of them were marvelling at the Marauders' handiwork. Sirius and his friends had made it impossible for anyone _not_ to notice their late night preparations. After all, it was hard to ignore the vast spread of pink and purple striped snow, crowned with large fluorescent green words reading _School is_ _snow_ _place to be on Christmas._

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter shared furtive glances between each other, and Sirius couldn't help but smirk when he thought of Filch's face the second he would come out of the castle doors and see the state of the snow outside.

The four friends continued past the crowd of students, and made their way to the Hogsmead platform, where the Hogwarts express was waiting to take students home to their families for the holidays.

Sirius kept walking down the winding path and past the gates when he became aware of fast footsteps pursuing his own. He turn to see Ariella hurrying after him.

"Hey, Sirius, hang on a minute!" she called out to him. He stopped, as did his friends.

"Hi", Sirius smiled at Ariella, "I wanted to see you, actually. I've - I have a present here for you."

Sirius rummaged in his leather jacket for the small present, and his friends, who had been hanging back, started to move on through the high gates.

"It's not much, really", said Sirius, pulling the present from his pocket and handing it to Ariella, "Just something small for a friend."

"Thank you!" said Ariella, seeming surprised at receiving his present, "Oh, peppermint imps. Good to see you remembered I like them."

"How could I forget, they're all you talk about, to be honest", he joked.

"Sure, sure", Ariella chuckled, putting the now unwrapped package in her shoulder bag, "Now I feel bad, though, because I only got you this card."

Ariella handed Sirius an envelope with his name on it in neat hand writing.

"Don't feel bad, it's fine", Sirius assured her, "Thanks for this, by the way."

He pulled open the envelope to reveal a wizarding Christmas card, was well as a cream and caramel flavoured Honeydukes lollipop that had been placed inside. Sirius pulled the card out first. It had a little illustration on the front, complete with moving, flying reindeer.

"Thanks, this is great", said Sirius. He was oddly touched by receiving this small gift from Ariella. He would only usually get presents from his fellow Marauders, but she had gone to the trouble of getting him something, "I better catch up with the others. But I guess I'll see you after they holidays. Have a great Christmas."

"You too", smiled Ariella, "See you."

Ariella waved a little then turned away, looking up the path for her friends. Sirius spun around and hurried off in the direction of the distant platform, where he could see his three friends boarding the Hogwarts express, keeping Ariella's card in his hand, intending to read it as soon as he got on the train himself.

Sirius managed to find his friends seated in their usual compartment, their trunks stored overhead.

"What was that about?" asked James, as Sirius threw himself down beside Remus in the chair opposite.

"Ariella had a card for me", said Sirius.

Remus mumbled something that sounded a lot like the words 'love' and 'letter' from behind the book Sirius had given him that morning.

"Shut up Moony", Sirius retorted, "I haven't even read it yet."

"Well get reading then", said James.

"Yeah, come on", agreed Peter, "I want to hear what she has to say to you."

"Sod off, this isn't story time with Sirius, you know", Sirius told them irritably, "I'll read it to myself, and only to myself, you nosey gits."

With that, Sirius slid the card out of the envelope again, tore open the plastic on the lollipop and popped in his mouth before beginning to read.

 _Dear Sirius_

 _I know we haven't been friends for very long, but it's been great getting to know you. I was thinking, if you would like, that we could keep in touch over Christmas by owl. See you after the holidays._

 _Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year._

 _From Ariella_

Sirius hadn't noticed the grin spreading over his face until he shut the card. It made him happy to think that he had found a new friend in Ariella, who was a rather bright and interesting girl.

He found, for the rest of the train ride to London, that nothing, not James's teasing about Ariella, not even the thought of a Christmas with his family, could wipe that grin entirely from his face.

 **##**

Sirius took a long breath, steeling himself for what awaited him downstairs. He had certainly not been looking forward to tonight's Christmas dinner over the past week. Kreacher the House Elf had spent all of Christmas Eve as well as all of today preparing a small feast for the visiting relatives that were due to arrive any minute.

Sirius couldn't stop thinking about how foul they were. His Uncle Cygnus, a brother to Sirius's mother, a man with cruel wit and a wicked sense of humour. Cygnus's wife, Aunt Druella would be coming too. She was as haughty as anyone could possibly be, even towards her family. Their daughter, and Sirius's cousin, Narcissa would also be along to dinner. Narcissa was vain and haughty like her mother, and shared the same platinum blonde hair and dark eyes of the Rosier family, from which Druella came before she was married. And of course, where Narcissa goes, Lucius Malfoy must follow, so Sirius's soon-to-be cousin in law was going to be at dinner as well.

There was only one person coming to dinner that Sirius had no objection to, and that was his Uncle Alphard. Uncle Alphard was Sirius's mother's other brother. He was the oldest of the three siblings and never married, and was without children. Uncle Alphard was perhaps the nicest member of the family that Sirius knew, apart from his cousin, and Narcissa's sister, Andromeda. Alphard was perfectly civil to Sirius, and was never cruel or insulting towards him. He also doted on Sirius as much as he could without drawing attention to it.

Sirius thought, that with his Uncle Alphard for company, he might last the entire dinner with out walking out on the others. But he knew that he would need to put up with a lot of trouble from his other relatives, his parents included. So, it was with this thought in mind, that Sirius left his room and went downstairs to the front hall way where his parents and brother were waiting, ready to greet their guests.

"There you are, stupid boy. Why can't you get it into your head that when I say come down this instant, I mean this instant?" his mother screeched at him.

Sirius ignored the insult. It washed over him, hardly registering. He didn't bother retaliating when his parents called names or said demeaning things about him, he only ever really cared if they targeted his friends.

"Yes, boy. And you'll want to smarten up that hair of yours too", Sirius's father commented from beside him.

Sirius flicked a bit of hair out his eye but otherwise ignored his father. Sirius was already wearing the plain black dress robes his mother had lain out for him, he wasn't going to make much more of an effort on his appearance.

Sirius leant back against the wall behind his family. He laughed inwardly as he saw the dress robes his mother had managed to get Regulus into. Thet were a deep green colour, so dark they were almost black. He was examining the almost lacy cuffs when he heard the doorbell ring. His eyes flicked to the door, knowing that his relatives would come through any moment

Sirius's Uncle Cygnus came through first, clasping hands with Sirius's father and brother, giving his mother a kiss on the cheek. Aunt Druella bustled in wearing some ugly, Victorian style dress robes, greeting them all with her simpering grin.

Narcissa came through the doorway dressed in elegant emerald dress robes, linking arms with her fiance, Lucius Malfoy. Sirius's cousin went about introducing her husband-to-be. Lucius smiled and shook hands. Sirius thought that Lucius looked strange with a grin on his face. The Lucius he remembered from his own early years at Hogwarts was proud and sour looking. However, apart from his facial expression, Lucius had not changed much. His white blond hair was still long, and he had only gained a few wrinkles around his dark grey eyes.

The only acknowledgment Sirius received from any of these relatives was sour look from his Aunt, before she and the others left the hallway for the grand dining room.

Sirius, however, stayed beside the front door, knowing that his Uncle Alphard would come through in a moment, left to trail in the wake of the other guests. And enter his Uncle did. Wheezing slightly, Alphard came over the threshold. His hair once been dark like his brother and sister's, but now it was streaked heavily with grey. He appeared a little ragged, and dark circles under his eyes betrayed his illness. Sirius new his Uncle had been unwell for some time, but Alphard looked more worn than when last he saw him.

"Sirius, my boy, here's a little something for Christmas", he said, patting Sirius on the back and handing him a parcel.

Uncle Alphard continued up the hall and into the dining room. Sirius turned and hurried up the stair case to his room, where he left his present on the bed spread, before thundering back down them and into the dining room.

His father sat at the head of the table, his mother on the right and Regulus on the left. Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus sat opposite each other, as did Narcissa and Lucius. Sirius found himself sitting next to Lucius, who glanced sideways at him in a suspicious manner, and opposite his Uncle Alphard, who smiled briefly and flashed Sirius his crossed fingers, signalling his hope that this dinner would go better than the last.

It was almost no time before Kreacher arrived with the dinner. They proceeded to eat the turkey and salad with the family making conversation about all sorts of things. Narcissa and Lucius were constantly the center of attention, being asked about wedding plans, Lucius's work at the ministry and his family, and how Narcissa was settling in at Lucius's family manor.

Regulus got a mention among the chatter, Sirius's mother telling everyone at the table about her favourite son's achievements at Hogwarts. While it was unpleasant, Sirius had no real reason to be upset, and so he kept his temper in check throughout the main meal.

Kreacher cleared away their plates and went to get the pudding. Sirius's mother drew out a rectangular package and handed it across the table to him.

"It's from all of the family Sirius, now saw thank you", she snapped.

"Yeah, thanks", Sirius hinted heavily at sarcasm, while examining the present.

Other gifts were handed around the table. Regulus seemed to end up with twice the amount of presents than there were people to give them. Sirius unwrapped his package to find a terrible old book. He manage to read the cover, which said _Pureblood Directory: A History of the Sacred Twenty Eight Wizarding Families._

Rather than wondering why he had been given such a book, Sirius supposed it was just some old thing his mother had found lying around, and took it as a not so subtle hint about the company he was keeping.

"What's this for, so I can plan my marriage to some distant cousin?" he asked his mother abruptly, slamming the book down on the table.

"Don't be silly, it's to remind you of what blood means, and to also remind you how bad blood can influence you in a negative way", she replied.

"What are you saying?" asked Sirius, rage building inside of him, "Are you saying that my friends are scum? Because if you are, say it to my face!"

Sirius's Uncle Cygnus chuckled menacingly, his Aunt looked shocked as did Narcissa, and Lucius looked slightly uncomfortable. Regulus looked somewhat worried, and Alphard simply sat in his chair, unmoving.

"Don't speak to your mother like that", Sirius's father said, looking down the table at his son.

"No, it's alright, dear", Sirius's mother said to his father, as Kreacher came into the room, laying the puddings in front of everyone, a grin on his face, "If Sirius wants to hear the truth, then I'll tell him... Sirius, you're friends _are_ scum. They were born in Muggle pits of filth, or in the dirty holes of Blood-Traitors! They aren't worthy of our company, and I am starting to think that you aren't either, so if you don't leave them, I will throw you out!"

"ENOUGH!" Sirius roared, flames of anger leaping up inside him. He stood up, throwing back his chair and upsetting his bowl of pudding, causing chocolate sauce to spatter all over Narcissa, "I WILL NOT LET YOU TALK ABOUT MY FRIENDS LIKE THAT!"

"Then get out!" his father cried, pointing towards the door to the hallway.

"FINE, I WILL", Sirius said, "I just want you to know that you disgust me intensely!"

Sirius stormed from the room, dark fury filling his mind. He wanted to escape the house so badly that he didn't care if he wasn't let back in this time. He stomped down the hallway and threw the door open, stepping out into the freezing night air.

He rushed out of the front garden and down the road, out of Grimmauld Place. He ripped the tie from around his neck and threw it into the gutter as he went. His mother's words echoed around his head, it felt like they would drive him mad with anger.

This was not first time he had stormed out of his home, and he let his feet carry him through the neighbouring streets. Sirius kept walking until he found himself in the middle of a small, derelict park.

He stopped and looked around, his mother's harsh talking filling his mind. She hated his friends because of their blood. All they were to her were animals, dirty and filthy. How could anyone think that of them. It made Sirius so angry, and he was filled the familiar black rage that haunted him on these nights.

Seeking something to vent his fury on, he lashed out on a garbage bin. He kicked it over, sending rubbish everywhere. He kicked again and again and again.

"ARRRRGH!" he called out in anger.

Feeling suddenly breathless, Sirius slumped onto a park bench. He put his head in his hands, massaging his pounding head, trying to ignore the memories of his mother's taunting.

His anger was receding, boiling down. He was breathing heavy and fast. In the distance, he heard the siren of a Muggle police car. Suspecting someone had called them after witnessing his assault on the garbage bin, Sirius got up and hurried away. He ran another two streets before sitting down on the foot path.

He didn't sleep that night. He wandered the streets, past dark houses with twinkling Muggle Christmas Lights, thinking over the previous events. He knew that he could leave his home forever and go live with James. But all his school things were at his house, and he had no money. However, that was not the reason for a strange pull in his heart. He thought about it. Why would he want to go back?

Regulus, that was why.

Sirius new that he needed to save his brother. If it was by taking Regulus with him, or staying in that awful house to try and change his mind, Sirius would have to sway his brother's mind from the path his parents where leading him down. A path that would undoubtedly end with a lifelong pledge to serve Voldemort.

Sirius knew his brother couldn't do it. Regulus would maybe start out okay, wanting to impress the Dark Lord and his own parents. But he was not heartless, and the evil would destroy him. Sirius had not given up on saving his brother from that fate yet.

So at five o'clock in the morning, Sirius came back home, which luckily still appeared for him from between 11 and 13, popped open the front window and snuck back in. He was not going to leave his brother yet.


	13. Brothers And Blood

Sirius spent the rest of his Christmas holidays in his room, locked away from the rest of the house. His parents didn't even know he was back until his father poked his head through the bedroom door.

Upon discovering his return, Sirius was made to apologise. A string of punishments ensued thereafter. He was not allowed out of his room except to use the bathroom, and every day, Kreacher would come to the door and leave a small plate of bread and cheese, and once, a bowel of cold soup.

The only other times Sirius was allowed to leave his room was when his parents made him help Kreacher around the house. Sirius had come to the conclusion that they simply kept him there to suffer. Not only did he hate the Elf and despise working with him, Sirius also made the house work go along much faster, which was another bonus for his parents.

The only thing Sirius could do to stop Regulus from worsening was to watch him while he was doing jobs with Kreacher. This wasn't much, but sometimes he got the opportunity to talk to his brother. Sirius expected Regulus to take advantage of an opportunity to ignore Sirius and act hatefully towards him. However, Regulus did talk to him, quite civilly too. But he always seemed fearful of speaking with his older brother, and Sirius suspected that his sibling worried about being punished for it.

All of this meant that Sirius was extremely thankful when he found himself on the train back to Hogwarts, sitting in his usual compartment with James, Remus, and Peter.

As they settled in, James took one look at him and Sirius could tell his friend had noticed his state of slight unkemptness.

"Rough holidays?" James asked Sirius. He was obviously trying to sound casual, but was failing to hide his concern.

"You have no idea, I'm lucky I wasn't thrown out", Sirius replied, half sighing, half relieved to be gone from his house.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Remus.

"You sound like those Muggle nutters" said Sirius, "Hippoes? Is that what they are? They like flowers and veggies."

"I think you mean hippies" Remus corrected him.

"Well, I don't want to talk it through or anything. I'm fine", Sirius exhaled and looked out the window.

He didn't want to tell his friends what his mother had said about them. He knew they wouldn't take it to heart, but telling them the cruel things she said about them would not have been an easy task.

"Well, if you're so sure", said James, "But you did actually manage to make it to Christmas dinner without having a good old spat with your parents, didn't you?"

"Christmas dinner was the problem", Sirius explained, "It wasn't exactly taken with the best company."

"Talking of company, how was Lucius?" asked Remus curiously.

"I'd forgotten about that!" said Peter, "Was he still the same git from when we were first years?"

"I didn't talk to him much", Sirius began, "Though that was mainly because he kept looking at me like I was a dead frog."

"Old Lucy hasn't changed much, then", James smiled a little, "But then, you did put an actual dead frog in his pumpkin juice while he was still at Hogwarts..."

"I remember that now", Sirius chuckled, "I should have done the same at dinner, but you'll be happy to know that I threw pudding all over Narcissa."

"Lovely", agreed Remus.

"Mate, I don't know about you, but apart from nearly getting kicked out of the house, it seems like you had great fun", said James, "I'd give anything to throw a bit of pudding at some of my cousins. Mind you, they are about fifteen years older than me, and have small children to care for, so pudding might be a bit too violent."

Sirius and his friends laughed at James, and they spent the rest of the train ride back to Hogwarts joking and planning some knew pranks for where they could fit them in. Gideon and Fabian popped in around lunch time, and Frank managed to visit them for a while too. Remus had to leave half way through to do prefect duties around the train corridors.

To Sirius, all of this made him feel rather a lot better. Being back with his friends, going about business as usual, made him almost forget entirely about the holidays, and he was quite content when he went to bed that night in his familiar four poster. He was happy to be home again.

 **##**

"Shut up James! Or I'll shove my pillow down your throat!" the calls of the morning had begun in the sixth-year boys dormitory, as Sirius had been pulled from a peaceful sleep by James's awful signing.

"Poor depraved boy, can't he understand talent, Moony?" asked James, as Sirius got up and hit him over the head with his pillow.

"No, judging by that awful Muggle rock he listens to sometimes", Remus agreed as Sirius shut himself in the bathroom.

"I can hear you Remus Lupin! My taste in music is impeccable!" he called through the door.

"It's loud and annoying, and sometimes causes glass to break", Remus replied from somewhere outside in the dormitory, "So while I say your taste is awful, at least your music is incredibly similar to yourself."

"And James's singing, going by that description", Sirius laughed, pulling on his robes.

"Oi! My singing is beautiful and melodious", James retorted.

"Don't use big words, James", Sirius heard Peter say from the other side of the door, "You know it hurts you, and I want to get to breakfast without having to drop you off at the hospital wing."

"Peter, you're just sad and fat", James told his small friend, "Speaking of fat people who love food way too much, Sirius better get out of the bathroom or I'll go without him."

"Prongs, we know you're just upset you can't sing like me", Sirius said, coming out of the bathroom and picking up his bag, "Breakfast! Oh breakfast!", he bellowed in an attempt at singing, "Here I come!"

He swung the dormitory door open and leapt through, attempting to curtsy on the way out.

"Thank you, I know I'm brilliant", he said as James tried to shove past him.

"Brilliantly stupid, now get going", James huffed.

Downstairs in the Great Hall, Sirius seated himself for breakfast facing the Slytherin table. As he poured himself some juice, he searched the serpent house for his brother. He spotted Regulus sitting with his usual friends. This made Sirius frustrated. After trying to talk his brother away from those kind of people this Christmas, the boy had still ignored him.

"I know you don't like it when the toast isn't that cooked, but you don't have to scrunch it up like that", said James from beside him, and Sirius realised that he had been clenching his fist around a piece of toast.

Shaking the toast crumbs off his sleeve, Sirius finished his breakfast with his friends before heading to double Transfiguration with James and Remus, where he was reminded of his detention for next day.

While his morning may have been filled with jesting and fun, by the time it was lunch, Sirius felt, what with his brother and the detention as well, he was turning out to be having a pretty off day.

This was what he was thinking about as he and his fellow Marauders were sitting in the grassy courtyard outside the Charms corridor. James and Remus were currently having a small argument about James leaving his dirty socks on Remus's bed, while Peter listened.

Sirius was hardly paying attention to them, only hearing snatches of conversation about 'socks giving me nightmares'. He was too busy thinking about how to get a chance to talk to his brother. So busy, in fact, that he barely noticed Ariella walk across the court yard without seeing him.

Sirius's mind flashed back to the card she had given him for the first time since he had left on the train for the holidays. Remembering her offer to keep in touch with owl mail, Sirius jumped up and rushed after Ariella as she turned into the Charms corridor.

"Wait! Ariella!" he called after her.

Ariella turned around and smiled to see him coming towards her, "Hey Sirius."

"Hi, I- I just wanted to say that I am sorry for not sending you any letters over Christmas, like you said in the card", Sirius explained to her, slightly out of breath, "Thanks for the card, by the way."

"Don't worry about the letters", she said, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, "You must have been busy over the holidays. Isn't everyone, with their families and all?"

"You do know who my family are, don't you?" Sirius asked Ariella, who looked a little confused at his sudden question, "I- Here, would you come in here, just to talk away from- from everyone else?"

Sirius lead Ariella into an unused classroom, closing the door behind him.

"What is this about?" Ariella chuckled, somehow amused by the situation.

"My family, do you know who they are?" Sirius asked Ariella.

"Well, your last name does help a little bit..." she laughed, but she was serious when she answered, "They're the Black family. And I know about their reputation too, if you're wondering."

"Well, of course you do. Why did I bother asking.." Sirius sighed, "Everyone does. But, they're not known just for being an old Pureblood family. They're not exactly willing to get cosy with Muggles either."

"I had some idea of that", said Ariella, "But aren't almost all Pureblood families that way? And what's this got to do with Christmas."

Sirius exhaled. He knew he would have to tell Ariella about his family at some point, certainly if he wanted to continue being friends with her. He was, however, annoyed by the fact that she was obviously pretending to have no idea about his family. Everyone in the School knew about Sirius Black, the boy whose own family didn't love him. One look at his brother and it was plain to see.

"Ariella, they support You-Know-Who! Half of them are Death Eaters! I have to spend Christmas with those people!" he exclaimed.

"Sirius", Ariella said, her voice suddenly stern, "I know who your family are, so don't carry on like that. Anyway, they're still your family, so unless I'm mistaken, they'd treat you fairly enough over the holidays. And you can say Voldemort's name to my face, I think it sounds funny, if anything."

Sirius was a little taken aback by her sudden tone, though this didn't stop him from retaliating.

"You're very, very mistaken, Ariella", he said to her, moving to the front of the room, "They are cruel and mean. I nearly got kicked out on Christmas Day! They don't give a damn about me! Everybody here knows it, so stop pretending you don't."

"Well sorry if I was just trying to be nice!" Ariella said, getting up from the desk she had leant against, "Sirius, the reason I acted like I didn't know was because I really didn't. Not properly, anyway. I've heard about the way your family is with you from _other people,_ not _you._ So excuse me for trying to reserve judgement before I heard the story from the poor boy who it's happening to! I would've thought you'd have been thankful!"

"Ariella, I didn't mean-"

"I understand you have issues with your family, but you need to sort them out", Ariella picked up brown shoulder bag and moved to the door, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an Astronomy class to get to."

Without another word, Ariella strode from the dank classroom, leaving Sirius completely alone but for some spiders in the corner. Sirius picked up his own bag and made for Charms in the classroom next door.

Sirius had trouble concentrating on his classes that afternoon. He kept replaying Ariella's words in his head. She had told him that she had wanted to hear the story from him, not other people, which he was extremely thankful for. Now that he knew the reason behind her falsehood, Sirius realised that he wasn't really upset with Ariella. She had also been right about his issues with his family. He would either have to bury them and move on, or try and resolve them, because their earlier argument had proved that it was affecting him away from home. He knew he had options, but he didn't know what to choose.

By the time school had finished for the day, Sirius had decided to try and apologise to Ariella. He had also decided that she had every right to refuse his apology, but not before she had heard him out.

While he may have come to this conclusion, the issue of what to do about stopping his family problems from influencing his day to day life still remained. While he was sure his parents would never, ever, be changed, he knew that he could fix some things with Regulus. Fortunately for him, an opportunity to speak with his brother presented itself as he and his friend were taking a walk in the grounds that afternoon.

The grass around the castle was still covered with snow, but today had been relatively free of any new downpour. Sirius and his fellow Marauders had decided to see if there was any snow good enough to have a snowball fight with. James was up ahead of their group, kicking snow up in the air every few meters.

"Too powdery!" he called over his shoulder.

"Ariella didn't seem too happy in Astronomy after you two went off to have a chat", Remus said quietly to Sirius.

Sirius sighed, "You still make it sound like Ariella and I are together... But, we had a bit of an argument."

"Sirius, you two have only just become friends. Are you such a trouble causer that you have to pick fights with her too?" Remus smiled.

"I guess so", Sirius chuckled, "I was trying to tell her about Christmas, because I thought she would have to know sooner or later. Then she started acting like she didn't know about me and my family, which annoyed me a fair bit. So I had a go at her for it, then she said that she wanted to hear everything from me and not other people. She also told me I had issues with my family and that I needed to fix them.

"And now, I guess, I've worked out she was right about pretty much everything, and I want to do something about my family. I was honestly thinking of bottling up my problems for the moment."

"Well that sounds really healthy", Remus replied sarcastically.

"You make it sound like a Muggle romance movie", said Peter, "The ones where they use too much hair product."

"Shut up Wormtail, just because that's all you ever see when your mum takes you to the Muggle cinema", Sirius retorted.

"Hey!" Sirius heard James call from up ahead, "Stop!"

James had turned a corner around the castle wall and was shouting at someone Sirius, Remus, and Peter couldn't see. The three of them rushed forwards to where James was standing, yelling at a group of people.

Sirius could see by looking at their faces that they were a group of fourth year Slytherins. In the midst of their group was a small girl in Ravenclaw robes, at whom they were jeering.

"Get away from her!" James shouted at them.

"Shove off, unless you want to answer to the Headmaster", Remus said loudly, stepping forward.

"It was just a bit of fun", one of the Slytherins called, "The little Mudblood deserved it."

Sirius was angry to hear the word aimed at the small and visibly frightened girl. As the group of Slytherins dispersed after getting a better look at Remus's prefect badge, Sirius watched them go. His heart dropped to see a very familiar face among them. It was his brother.

"Look after her, I'll be back in a minute", Sirius said to his friends, indicating to the small girl as he strode off after his brother.

He found Regulus straggling behind the group with two friends and called out to him.

"Oi! Stop!" he cried.

Regulus murmured something to his friends and they left, while he stayed behind, his eyes on Sirius.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sirius asked his brother as he neared him.

"It was just a bit of fun", said Regulus, looking at the ground as Sirius reached him.

"Really? Because it didn't look like it", Sirius said harshly.

"You're one to talk", said Regulus, suddenly becoming defensive, "You and your friends are always picking on Snape. And you hex him, we didn't hurt that girl."

"Snape goes looking for trouble these days, and I won't deny that we do too, but it's a mutual dislike", Sirius explained, venom in his voice, "It's different to talking like that to a little girl. How old was she? Eleven? Twelve? She was a damn sight younger than you. Why did you even do it?"

"Because she had it coming", said Regulus, finally looking up from the ground and into Sirius's face, "She deserved it. She was Muggle-born. A Mudbl-"

"No!" Sirius bellowed, aggressively shoving brother against the castle wall, "No! Don't say that about her! About anyone! I know you don't believe that it makes it okay. I know you don't!"

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair in desperate thought, backing away from the wall and his brother.

"It's because of our parents, isn't it, and your friends. The lies they tell you. It's always the same!" Sirius cried out in frustration, "But don't you see? You don't have to be like that. You can do something else. They'll still love you, they've always loved you. Just go get a job at the Ministry. Some high up, important job, where you can fire lots of people. That'll make our parents plenty happy."

"You don't understand, Sirius", said Regulus, his voice quiet, "I have to be like that."

"Why? Why in the name of Merlin would you ever need to treat other people in that way?" Sirius didn't understand.

"Because I don't want to be like you", Regulus said, his voice quiet, yet perfectly clear.

"What- What are you on about?" Sirius asked, unsure whether to be hurt or not.

"I have to treat Muggles like filth. I have to! It's to impress Mum and Dad", Regulus was raising his voice, beginning to sound distressed, "To make them proud! Take a look at what goes on at home, Sirius, they have no love for you! You can't talk to them. They keep you in the house unless you sneak out. In which case you're lucky you get let back in! They try to keep you away from your best friends! Friends who are the only people who love you!"

Regulus was shouting now. It was the first time Sirius had ever really seen his brother like this, and the boy looked somewhat scared.

"And look at them, Sirius. Look at your friends!" Regulus continued, "As soon as they get out of Hogwarts, they'll go and joint the fight against You-Know-Who. He has so many followers, and is so powerful! That's another reason for me to behave like that, to impress the Dark Lord himself! Do you know why? Because your friends will fight against him, and they will die. The friends I make among his ranks will have the upper hand! I will most likely have the chance to grow old with them!

"But you... Considering that you actually live through the war, you'll be all alone, Sirius. Your friends will be dead and you will have no family to run to. And that's why I don't want to be like you. Because you fight and fight for freedom. First our parents, next the Dark Lord! And you keep going, until you've fought so much that there is no-one left to love you. And I don't really think there's much point in freedom if you've got nobody to share it with."

Regulus looked about as bad as Sirius felt. Sirius could see that the truths he was telling was hurting him to say it, especially to his own brother. As Regulus paused, Sirius felt like he almost wanted to hug his brother, but he knew that Regulus was trying get across a very different message.

"So I think I'll keep this up. If it's an act or if I'm just a bad person, I'm going to keep judging people on how much magical blood they've got. Because if I do, I might be doing the wrong thing, but people who matter to me will love me for it, and that sounds just fine."

Regulus cast one last look at Sirius before trudging away through the snow, his dark cloak flapping in the gentle wind. Sirius stood rooted to the spot. Everything Regulus had said seemed to be a terrible truth. A truth that cut Sirius like a knife.

Sirius was lonely because of his constant fight for his personal freedom. It made him wonder if love was more important than doing the right thing. If he kept going against the dark side that was ever-present in his world, he may well end up like his brother had said. Alone. His friends dead.

Or he could stop fighting, maybe regain the love of his parents and his family, and make new friends among people like them. But it was out of the question. He couldn't do that. And as he watched Regulus walk away into the distance, he felt as if his brother was leaving for good.


	14. Take The Cake

It was rather late in the evening when Sirius finally walked into the common room, pale and dripping with snow. He had been outside in the cold ever since he had spoken to his brother. He had walked through the snow and the dark, running his mind over what Regulus had said to him. Sirius had stayed out in the grounds until his fingers went numb and his eyes started watering from the icy weather.

Back in the common room, he took off his cloak and headed for the dormitory, too busy thinking to stop and talk to his friends, who were finishing their homework by the fire. He tramped up the stair case and opened his dormitory door. Sirius went inside and sat down on his bed, still turning things over in his mind.

"Sirius?" a familiar voice called from the doorway, and Sirius looked up to see James standing there, "You alright?"

"Not really", said Sirius, unmoving.

"Well, telling me what's wrong is probably going to help, mate. So come on, out with it", James seated himself opposite Sirius.

"I talked to Regulus. He said a lot of things to me, that I guess were true, but I didn't really need to hear them, you know?" Sirius told James, who was watching him from behind his glasses with concern, "I think what he was saying, in the end, was goodbye."

"You mean forever or what?" James asked, looking up to face Sirius.

"I- yeah, yeah I guess forever", Sirius sighed, saying it seemed to make it final, a fact set in stone.

"Oh. I'm sorry he said that", James looked at Sirius, worried yet unsure how to comfort his friend.

"What's wrong?" asked Remus, he and Peter appearing at the doorway.

"My brother", Sirius answered in a gruff tone.

"Okay..." Peter said as he and Remus seated themselves opposite on James's bed.

"He doesn't want to really talk to Sirius anymore, I think" said James, still appearing uncertain.

"He doesn't want to be brothers, more like" Sirius stated blankly.

He was starting to feel extremely let down, deflated by the fact that his brother had abandoned him. He had tried so hard to help Regulus away from a life of cruelty and death, and not only had he failed, but he had discovered that it had been what his brother had wanted from the start.

He remembered back to when he was a child, playing with and caring for Regulus. He would teach Regulus different things each day, and would delight in seeing his brother's eyes, so much like his own, light up with interest at his many wonderful discoveries. Sirius had wished ever since they had started to grow apart all those years ago, that they could become that close again.

Now his brother had severed all ties with him, Sirius had no reason to stay with his family. He almost couldn't bear the thought of leaving Regulus. They had had a quiet sort of brotherly friendship, strained at times, but Sirius would miss him all the same. The boy had been his only friend as a young child, standing by him when his parents started to realise their eldest son might not have been all they could have hoped for.

"Are you sure?" asked Remus in a quiet voice.

"I know Regulus, and I know what he meant", Sirius spoke as he lay across his bed cover.

"And I know you", James began loudly, "And I know that you're going to be a complete drama queen about this. You're going to brood about it all day, and you're going stay up thinking about it. You won't talk to us about anything. You'll be miserable. And you have every right to be that way, he is, or was rather, your brother after all. But I like to think we're your brothers too.

"You've had a rough day, so all us other sods who are unfortunate enough to be like siblings to you, are going to take you down to the kitchens. There's lots of food there, and you practically drown your troubles in chocolate, my friend, so let's go."

There was no arguing with James as he set about pulling his invisibility cloak from his trunk and searching for the map. Sirius wasn't really bothered whether or not if he went to the kitchens, but his friends were trying to make him feel better, so he went along with it.

"It does work, you know", said Remus to Sirius as they exited their common room with James and Peter.

It was just before their nine o'clock curfew, so the Fat Lady really couldn't get upset at them, but there was no doubt she would be irritated when they came back in the middle of the night.

"What?" Sirius asked him as they began to follow James down the stairway.

"Chocolate. Or at least it makes you feel better", Remus explained.

"Thanks for the advice, Moony", Sirius smiled at his friend as they continued on their way to the kitchens.

They finally arrived at the entrance to the kitchens; a large still life painting of a bowl of fruit. James stepped forward immediately, knowing quite well what he had to do. Tickling the oil painted pear at the front of the portrait, James unlocked the vault of delicious food that was the Hogwarts kitchen. The pear gave a giggle and began to squirm within its frame, slowly but surely emerging from the canvas and transforming into a curved green door handle. James turned the handle and opened the portrait back like a door, revealing the high ceiling and clean surfaces of the kitchen.

Sirius and his friends barely managed to enter the enormous room before they were swamped by tiny bodies. The House Elves gathered around the four boys, calling out greetings in their squeaky voices.

"Hello, young masters", one House Elf stepped forwards from the swarm.

He was rather young compared to the other House Elves working in the kitchen, or at least Sirius thought it looked that way, though he did not know what distinguished young House Elves from old ones. This House Elf in particular was rather spritely in appearance, with bright green eyes and long ears the stuck out straight on either side of his head. His nose was quite small for a House Elf, it was a button nose that turned up slightly at the end.

"Hey Dimple" said James, bending down to greet the House Elf.

"What can Dimple get for young masters this evening?" Dimple the House Elf inquired.

"Four Butterbeers, a pile of your finest eclairs, and a giant chocolate milkshake for this one, please", James told the little Elf, slapping Sirius on the back as an indication of who the milkshake was for.

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter seated themselves at one of the extensively long kitchen benches where an array of shining copper pots and pans hung overhead. They watched the House Elves bustle about making their food. It never ceased to amaze Sirius how eager to serve House Elves were. If treated with kindness, the Elves would happily do whatever chore or errand was asked of them. Even Kreacher back at Sirius's home had an endless will to serve his master and mistress, despite the fact that he loathed to work a job for Sirius.

It was quite soon that a small troop of House Elves delivered the food and drink to the four boys at their bench. Peter handed out the butterbeers and placed the eclairs in the middle of the bench, then sliding the tall milkshake down the polished surface to Sirius- but not before he poured a frothy butterbeer into it, causing the milk to bubble.

Taking a cautious sip of the apparently delicious chocolate beverage, Sirius watched James proceed to wolf down five eclairs, finishing off his butterbeer with a few quick gulps. Licking his fingers and handing the empty bottle to a nearby House Elf, James ambled towards the back of the kitchen. He bent down behind a bench, and assuming that James was asking a House Elf for another item of food, Sirius turned his eyes to the pile of eclairs.

He look up again until he heard the clattering of pots and pans. Thinking it was a House Elf washing up something, he searched the vast room for the source of the noise. Sirius's eyes came to rest upon the image of James moving about at the furthest bench, surrounded by a cloud of flour.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing, Prongs?" Sirius called out, bewildered, to his best friend.

"Nothing of your concern!" James cried back across the kitchen, "Just stay there and keep stuffing your face. Follow Wormtail's example."

"Mmph!" Peter managed to retaliate through a mouthful of eclairs.

"Well I'm done eating, so do you mind if I have a look?" Remus questioned as he passed his empty Butterbeer gently to a House-Elf close by.

"I suppose so..." James replied, throwing a spoon of jam into his bowl, "Just don't betray me and tell Sirius."

"Don't worry James, I'm not working as a spy for Padfoot or anything", Remus smiled before starting to cross the kitchen to where James was working.

"Moony! You agreed to be my spy for all friendship related suspicious situations!" Sirius cried, "To think that you didn't even give notice of your resignation!"

"I did not, Sirius", Remus called back as he reached the bench where James was preparing the mystery food, "And besides, what is Peter good for if he can't be your spy."

"I can you know", said Peter hopefully, "I demand lower pay rates..."

"Peter, I didn't even pay Moony", sighed Sirius, "And he just quit before the first opportunity to spy for me arrived."

"For the last time, I didn't even agree to become your 'spy', Padfoot!" Remus replied, "You know, sometimes I- James, don't put that in there, that's not how you bake."

Sirius ignored the rest of what Remus was saying to James and turned back to his eclairs. He and Peter chatted for at least fifteen minutes, both trying to work out what exactly it was that James was attempting to cook at the far away bench.

"Maybe it's a soufflé?" suggested Sirius.

"That's a French pastry thing, right?" Peter asked him.

"I believe it is..." Sirius replied, peering over at James, who was trying to fry something in a pan, and Remus, who was watching intently and making comments here and there.

"To advanced then, for James" Peter concluded, bringing Sirius's attention back to the conversation at hand, "He can't cook to save his life. Remember that time he tried to make us scrambled eggs at his place?"

"I'd rather not remember that, Wormtail", Sirius muttered, "My jumper is singed and still has a smell that haunts my deepest, darkest dreams."

"I can hear you two!" James cried from across the room, making House Elves look up from their various duties, "But this will make up for it, I swear! As soon as it's cooked, that is-"

As James announced this, a burst of fire erupted into the air before him, send him tumbling over the bench top behind him, and making Remus jump back in surprise.

"Whatever it is, I'm definitely not eating it now!" Sirius denounced, "I'll die of poisoning for sure!"

"Just hang on- nearly done- just have to put this fire out-"

"James, your tea-towel's on fire"

"Ah! Yes- there we go- just add this here... and done!"

James proceeded to lift the burnt piece of mystery food above his head on a platter. He swept across the room, maneuvering around many scurrying House-Elves who were rushing to clean up the mess he had evidently made behind at his bench.

"Here we go" James said, placing a charred lump in front of Sirius on the table top, "One cake for you."

"It looks awful" assessed Sirius.

What sat before him resembled more of a burnt badger rather than a cake. The sponge itself was blackened on one side, obviously from the flames that James had conjured up in an attempt to cook it. It was slightly drooping to the other side though, because that side was relatively uncooked and still slightly runny. The cake was iced on top with lumpy white icing, as well as some wonky pink writing that contained the message _Sorry Your Brother's a Sod._

"Mum's birthday's coming up soon, and I need practice", James said simply.

Sirius looked back at the cake with apprehension, even if it hadn't been abhorrently burnt, he still wasn't even sure if James had added edible ingredients.

"Well" James said impatiently, "Eat some."

"Nope, no. No" Sirius pushed himself back in his chair, "You know I love many different foods, but I draw the line at this mound of dragon dung that you wish to feed me."

"After all the hard work I put into making this cake-"

"If you can call it a cake."

"-you think you can just say no?" James retorted, "I _will_ immobilise you and force feed some to you. Just one bite."

"You sound like my mother when I wouldn't eat Kreacher's cabbage soup. That was when I was about five", Sirius look at Remus for help, who simply shook his head, "Fine, give me that spoon Wormtail. I'll eat it, James, one bite."

Sirius took the spoon from Peter's hand and took a scoop from the less charred side of the cake.

"Moony, I want to make sure you have a eulogy ready for when I die, because I fear this may be the end", Sirius sighed as he lifted the spoon closer to his mouth.

"Just get on with it", James huffed.

Sirius put the spoon in his mouth, taking a bite of the cake. The taste immediately made him splutter. It was utterly disgusting, it did not taste like cake at all. It made his mouth go dry and he felt like gagging as he tried to swallow it down. When Sirius finally managed to get the lump of cake down his throat, he reached for his milkshake and downed the left over half in one go. Coughing, he sat up and looked at James as if to say 'I told you it was bad'.

"Blimey", James exclaimed, "I didn't think it was _that_ bad. What was wrong with it?"

Sirius managed to stop choking long enough to say, "You used salt you idiot."

Peter and Remus erupted into laughter. James stood silent, rendered speechless by his mistake.

"I knew it!" Remus chortled, "You just can't cook."

"Well this an improvement on that last accident with the scrambled eggs", Peter gasped.

Sirius was grinning up to his eyes, which were still watering from his near choking accident merely moments before. He stood up from his chair, and started to make for the doorway.

"We should get going, I don't fancy sticking around, that cake might go off and explode as any minute," he laughed.

"Wait", James called after his friends as they began to leave.

"Oh no, if you want any more of that cake eaten, you'll have to do it yourself", Sirius looked back at his friend apologetically.

"No, I know no-one in their right mind would eat this cake", James conceded, "But that doesn't mean there aren't other uses for it..."

"Like what, poison?" asked Sirius, still chuckling at James.

"No", James picked up the cake, "I have another idea. Moony, do you have the list of Slytherin common room passwords on you at the moment?"

"James", Remus began exasperatedly, "Do you honestly think that I have an up to date list of every house's common room passwords? Because there was that one time for Hufflepuff, but that didn't work anyway, the door just dumped syrup all over us because we weren't in the right house."

"I am certain that you do Remus", James said confidently, "It's a blatant lie when you say you're off to the library every Thursday afternoon, because I've seen you, and you go and sit outside each common room from the other houses and make note of when the passwords change and what it is, depending on what students say to get in. Except Ravenclaw, because they have those riddles that just waste their time, but you know... My point is that you take these notes in case one of us comes up with a brilliant plan to infiltrate one of the other common rooms for a brilliant prank, because you love us and we have corrupted your bookish ways. I happen to have an idea that involves breaking into the Slytherin common room, so give up the list, it's Thursday, you still have it."

Remus looked taken aback by James's wild yet apparently accurate accusations, "Here, take it, it's up to date."

With the list relinquished from Remus, James led the way out of the kitchens. He stopped only to say goodbye to the many House-Elves that had crowded the doorway, eager to say farewell to the boys.

"Goodbye masters!" called Dimple from the midst of many tiny, waving hands.

"See you!" called James.

"Stay cool, Dimple", Sirius said as he followed his bespectacled friend.

When Peter and Remus had said goodbye to the excited House-Elves, Remus shut the door behind them. The pear in the still-life portrait turned back to its original two dimensional state from being a lightly coloured door handle. The door was sealed, immediately blocking out the noise of the House-Elves' well wishes and leaving the kitchens corridor dark and silent.

"Onwards to the Slytherins' darkened lair, I assume?" Sirius asked James.

"You guessed it", James turned with a smile and crept down the hall.

The four Marauders traveled without James's Invisibility Cloak, as they were too tall for all of them to fit underneath it at once. The kitchens were not overly far from the dungeons, and the boys, still unsure of James's plan, made it to the dark stone corridor in good time. Reaching the harsh grey wall that concealed the Slytherin common room, James whipped out Remus's password list.

"Sirius and I are going in", said James, "It's important that he comes with me, since this about him, really. But Remus, Peter, you two can stay right inside the doorway, no one should be able to see you there, and if everything goes to plan, you should be able to watch everything from where you are."

James threw his Cloak over himself and Sirius, making them disappear in and an instant. He handed his cake out from under the Cloak to Remus.

" _Ignotious_ " James read aloud from the list in a soft voice.

The sound of stone grinding against stone ensued thereafter. The wall in front of them was splitting apart and sliding back to reveal a door way. They could see where the seemingly empty Slytherin common room lay beyond. James swapped the list for his cake with Remus.

"I forgot, it really is all doom and gloom in here.." Sirius said as they entered the shadowy room cautiously.

Checking that the room was indeed devoid of any students, James motioned for Sirius to follow him. No Slytherins were in their common room, and the large clock which sat over the fire place beside an assortment of candles and blackened skulls told Sirius that it was almost midnight.

"James, where are we going?" Sirius asked his friend suspiciously.

"Boy's dormitory," James whispered, "Now which stair case do you think it is?"

On the left side of the common room, next to an elegant green armchair with carved wooden legs stood two doorways, each with a dark stone stair case leading upwards into the wall.

"Ah, maybe the one the right?' Sirius said, unsure.

"Okay, we'll try that one", James agreed.

Sirius glanced back to where Remus and Peter were crouched by the entrance to the common room, before heading up the staircase with James. The stairway was short and straight, taking no time at all for the two boys to climb. Once at the top, Sirius found himself and James in a long passage way that extended to their right. It was lined with the same torches that lined the walls outside in the dungeons. On the wall furthest from them there were seven doors, each spread far apart along the corridor. Sirius realised that each door had one year's dormitory behind them. He and James moved closer to the nearest door. It was painted black and had a small silver number one nailed to it. First years.

"Here", James hissed, "Fourth years".

He was motioning towards the fourth door down the hallway. It was the same glossy black and as all the others but the number nailed to it was a small silver four.

"James, are we doing what I think we are?" Sirius knew what James had in mind, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not, "Because, I don't want more trouble with Regulus."

"Come on, Padfoot" said James, "This isn't that bad a prank, okay, surprising at most. You of all people should love it."

"Okay, but if I get a howler from my mother getting up me because I apparently set Regulus on fire or something, you are going to get it", Sirius whispered quickly.

"Whatever you say, Padfoot", James rolled his eyes before turning the door handle and pushing it open gently.

Sirius peered through the dim light of the wall torch behind them into the dormitory. There were around seven boys sleeping in the room. They each lay in a black iron framed bed, soundly dreaming. Sirius recognised his brother's dark head sitting on a pillow in a bed that was against the far wall of the square room.

James raised his wand and, muttering and incantation, cast a charm that Sirius knew would allow him to speak directly into Regulus's ear without anyone else hearing. A blue spiralling tunnel of light stretched from the end of James's wand and came to a stop next to the head of the younger Black brother.

"Regulus..."James whispered into his end of the tunnel, "Regulus Black... Reggie-poo."

Sirius tried not to let out a laugh as his friend continued to whisper, this time in a ghostly voice. Sirius had not wanted to aggravate things further with his brother, but now he realised that it didn't really matter if he did or not, Regulus had made it clear that he didn't want to talk to Sirius again. What was the point in trying to make things better? No, Sirius decided that this was just another fun prank, and that it didn't really matter if he upset his brother just a little.

As James continued to speak through the tunnel of light, Regulus stirred. The boy started to wake, and James pulled Sirius away from the door, terminating the charm and nearly dropping the cake. He called to Regulus again, this time with just his usual voice, and Sirius heard his brother leave his bed and start for the door. James quickly took Sirius's arm and pulled him back down the hallway. Sirius and James rushed back down the stairs and into the common room.

"Regulus!" James called out.

Sirius looked back towards the main entrance where he could just see the outlines of Peter and Remus, silently looking on. Sirius could hear Regulus moving down the hallway above them. James quickly produced the cake from under the Cloak and sat in the middle of the emerald coloured carpet in front of the doorway that lead up to the Slytherin boys' dormitory.

No sooner had James had pulled his hand back under the Cloak than when Regulus appeared at base of his dormitory stairs. Despite having only just woken up, Sirius could tell that his brother was wary. Sirius watched as his brother scanned the room for the source of James's voice. Regulus looked towards Remus and Peter's hiding place. His grey eyes lingered there for a moment, before turning to the cake he had just realised was sitting on the floor in front of him.

James pointed his wand directly at the cake and muttered something so quietly that even Sirius could not hear him. Regulus bent down to read what it said on the top of the misshapen cake.

" _Sorry your brother's a sod..._ " he read aloud under his breath.

There was a moment of complete silence. No-one moved or spoke while Regulus remained bent over the cake, contemplating its purpose. That was the moment when James flicked his wand sharply upwards, sending the cake upwards as well, so that it slapped directly into Regulus's face. The cake peeled itself away from Sirius's brother as the boy fell back. Fear in his eyes, Regulus got to his feet and tried to scramble away from the cake as it resumed its attack. Again and again the cake walloped him over the head, spattering his face and hair with cream and sponge alike.

Sirius and James could not find the control to stop laughing and roared unashamedly. Regulus, befuddled already by the ceaselessly violent cake, looked around wildly for the people laughing at him. James and Sirius rushed from the room, touching Remus and Peter on the shoulders to let them know it was time to go. The four boys darted down the dungeon corridor, James pulling the Cloak off himself and Sirius so that they could go faster. They ran and ran, until they reached their own common room, bursting with mirth at seeing Regulus Black being hit around the face with a cake.


	15. The Howler

It had arrived. Not that Sirius wasn't expecting it after splattering his brother with cake. It was a howler.

Vultoria, the Black family owl, swooped down and landed in Peter's porridge. It dropped the letter in front of Sirius, bit his finger, and then flew off again. Sirius instantly recognised the red envelope and knew that his brother had seen him leave the dungeons as James had removed the Cloak. Sirius probably held the record for most howlers given to a Hogwarts student since 1971.

"Look James, now there are _two_ howlers at the table", he laughed.

"Let me give you a bite like that owl just did, and see how fun it is to grow fur every month", snarled Remus.

"What is it Sirius?" asked Peter, "What's a _howler_ ".

It was at this time that Sirius realised Peter had never been around when he had been sent a howler, and Peter had certainly never been sent one, being a Muggleborn. The last time Sirius had received a howler at the breakfast table was in first-year, when Peter was not yet acquainted with him or James. After that the loud letters had found him in the dormitory when Peter wasn't there.

"It is, Peter, a letter", Sirius put an arm around his friend's shoulders, holding the letter for Peter to see, "I'm planning on opening it after school today. But sadly, my bag is absolutely chock full of books. So, if you just put it in _your_ bag for the time being, I'll-"

"Sirius, no", interrupted Remus, "Peter don't take it".

"Why?" asked Peter, who seemed worried.

"Because it's a howler", explained Remus, "It's a letter that reads itself, in a matter of speaking..."

"Shouts its contents for the world to hear, more like", added James, increasing the look of fear upon Peter's face.

"And if you don't open it-", began Remus.

"It explodes!" finished James.

Peter looked scandalised at Sirius's attempt to push the apparently evil letter on him.

"Mate, just open it already!" exclaimed James to Sirius, who was looking, ashen faced, at the letter.

"I've got a much better idea", said Sirius.

With that he scooped up the now slightly shaking letter and turned to leave the Great Hall. He walked along the corridor, but as the letter started shaking more violently, he ran the rest of the journey. He skidded to a stop outside the History of Magic classroom. Sirius went in and looked around. No-one was there yet.

He went straight over to Professor Binns desk and opened a draw at random. He shoved the red envelope in and slammed it shut. He heard the door open behind him. He spun around to see a group of third years through his messy hair.

"What are _you_ doing here?" asked a girl with two blonde pigtails and Slytherin robes.

"You'll find out", said Sirius, then added, "But I tell you what. Sit up in the front row. Right near Binns' desk, and you'll avoid most of the damage".

"What-", but before the children could ask any more questions, Sirius sped out of the room and next door for his Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

He slipped off his cloak and rolled up the sleeves of his school jumper just before the rest of the class entered.

"What did you do the letter?" asked James as he sat next to Sirius.

"Trust me, you'll find out", he smirked.

"Today we will be looking at defensive spells", said Professor Gatherey, "Defensive spells are any spell used in confrontation that is not offensive. As to say that you cannot attack or injure with them. One of the most prominent defensive spells is the Expelliarmus spell-" _three_ , "- It is used to disarm any witch or wizard of their wand. Another well-known shielding spell is-" _two_ "- the Protego charm, which is used to produce an invisible shield- What _is_ that noise?"

 _One._

With a loud booming sound, the room shook as an explosion took place next door. The class all rushed to the doorway to see what had happened. James shot Sirius a questioning look. Sirius nodded.

Sirius and James stood behind the rest of the class. With his height Sirius could see what was going on over the top of the crowd. A group of startled looking students were standing outside, more were filing out of the room. The peculiar thing about them was that they had purple scorch-marks all over them. Sirius spotted the girl he had told to sit up the front. She was definitely the worst. She was completely purple, head to toe.

"So that's what happens when a howler blows up", said Sirius in amusement.

Just then he noticed a bad odour coming from the History of Magic classroom. It smelt like a mixture of rotten eggs and burnt hair.

Thanks to the smell and the stubborn purple stains, all of the lessons held on that floor had to be cancelled. This suited Sirius fine, because now he didn't have to do the six foot long essay that McGonagall was planning to give them.

Yet again Sirius Black had managed to cause mayhem at Hogwarts. All without being caught.

##

The missed Transfiguration lesson of course meant that they would have to spend the time elsewhere. McGonagall had therefore decided that a lesson spent in the library would not hurt the students. So when the time came, Sirius, James, and Remus, as well as the rest of their Transfiguration classmates, where to be found in the library, looking through books and scribbling away at essays in a half-hearted way.

"I think she can see us", James said, pointing to Madam Pince, "Look, mate, she's giving us evil eyes."

"She still hasn't forgot about those books, then", Sirius agreed, looking towards where the librarian sat at her desk.

Madam Pince was eyeing him and James with great suspicion, and obviously had not forgotten the last great incident they had caused in her library. Not that they hadn't been back to the library after their ingenious plan to swap the covers of some books around. No, they had come fleetingly into Hogwarts' great room of books many times after, grabbing whatever information they required for their homework and studies, before hurrying out again, under the quietly furious gaze of their foreboding librarian. But, being stuck in the library for a whole lesson's worth of time meant that Madam Pince finally had the two book breakers in her grasp, and so she was glaring at them determinedly while she stamped returned books in a very harsh manner.

"This is so boring", huffed Sirius, slumping onto the table.

"What?" asked Remus from behind the green cover of _A Hundred Magical Herbs and Fungi._

"Bored", Sirius replied with a moan.

"Well, you could always go and talk to your girlfriend", Peter suggested from the other side of Remus.

"She's just over there", James said, prodding Sirius in the head.

"Last time I checked", Sirius sat up again, "I didn't have a girlfriend."

"Still in denial", Remus murmured before returning to his Herbology research.

"Sod off, Moony", Sirius grumbled, even though he knew that Remus couldn't hear him.

"Have you apologised to Ariella yet?" asked James in all seriousness.

"No", replied Sirius, "I guess I could go and talk to her now."

Sirius had not forgotten about needing to apologise to Ariella for yelling at her earlier that week. He knew what he wanted to say because he had thought long and hard about it. He had to try and make her understand about how it was with his family, but he was also going to explain how things were somehow better now, with the burden of his brother partly gone.

He stood and moved away from the table where he had been sitting with his friends. Ariella was still in the same spot James had pointed out. Sirius could see her standing behind a book shelf in a more secluded part of the library. She was looking at all the different books, touching the spines from time to time, softly muttering the occasional title to herself.

"Ariella?" Sirius inquired quietly from the end of the shelf.

"Oh, Sirius", Ariella said, seeming surprised, "I was just looking for a book about the properties of moonstone."

"I haven't seen one of those around, sorry", Sirius moved closer down the row of book towards Ariella, "I did come to say sorry though, for what I said yesterday."

"That's okay", Ariella sighed, appearing to give up on her search for the book, "I sort of understand why you were upset. I guess it's frustrating to have people ask about your family all the time."

"A bit. But it wasn't really your fault", Sirius conceded, "I mean, I was angry after what happened back home, so I got upset at you. But I am sorry, really."

"I'll forgive you this time", smiled Ariella, "Did you sort something out with your brother?"

"I did actually", Sirius admitted, "We have a nice agreement; not to talk to each other, and I think he means it to last a long while, if not forever."

"I'm sorry about that", Ariella came and leaned next to Sirius on the bench that ran under the shelf.

"Well, it wasn't really like I talked to him much anyway", Sirius thought, mostly to himself.

He didn't say anything else. He didn't want to tell Ariella about how he had failed his brother. How he couldn't stop the boy from going the way he was. He hadn't even told James, and he was so tired of the whole thing that he resolved to focus on the other parts of his life.

Sirius stared at the hard covers of the books on the shelf opposite him, before he turned to look at Ariella and her warm, blue eyes. A snatch of their previous argument played on his ears. _'You can say Voldemort in front of me, I think it sounds funny, if anything'_ Ariella was saying in his mind's eye. Sirius laughed, it was an odd thought that the girl before him thought the name of the darkest wizard of all time was humorous. But now Sirius came to think about it, the name Voldemort really did sound quite ridiculous. He wondered at how the man could have come up with such a title for himself.

"What's so funny? What are laughing at?" Ariella questioned from beside him.

"Nothing. I just remembered how you said to me that Voldemort's name was funny sounding", Sirius stated.

"Well it _is_ " Ariella replied a little defensively, but she laughed all the same.

"I know, I just never realised it", Sirius said, "I guess I was too busy thinking about how many people he had killed."

"I suppose so", agreed Ariella, "But you can't think about awful things all the time, otherwise you'd feel terrible. So really, I just got thinking and decided, that for such and evil man, he really does have a stupid name."

"So you're not afraid of him? Not a tiny bit?" Sirius asked.

"I wouldn't say that", Ariella mused, "But let's just say that if he came up to me and tried to blast my head off, I would try and hex him right in the face first."

"That seems reasonable", Sirius nodded, "I guess I would do that too."

"But you're mad, so it isn't the same", Ariella smiled again, "It would be brave if I did it though, because I'm not crazy like you."

"To be honest with you, I think being crazy and brave are pretty much the same", Sirius laughed, and so did Ariella.

Sirius felt happy for the rest of the day, after his conversation with Ariella in the library. He seemed to have a warmness inside him, and he felt good to know that Ariella had forgiven him for what he had said to her, and that they could go back to being friends.

Sirius was mercilessly cheerful that afternoon (much to the annoyance of his friends), until he remembered his detention with Professor McGonagall that evening.


	16. James Potter- Muggle Superhero

Spring had arrived, and the Hogwarts students knew it. Not just because a certain date on their calenders marked the beginning of a new month and a new season. The air was warmer, the sun brighter. The snow around the castle had melted away last month, in April when Spring first began, leaving frighteningly icy puddles where the students always seemed to step in them, making their socks unbearably cold and soggy.

This made the students of Hogwarts appreciate the sunny days, not to mention the fact that the Easter Holidays and Easter itself would come in no time at all. Sirius was currently planning what he would need to buy from Hogsmeade on their last visit before Easter Sunday. He required a larger amount of Easter eggs than he had last year, as he had one more friend to gift some to. Another contributing factor was that he often gave Remus more for Easter than he gave him for Christmas. They did joke about Remus being in love with the very idea of chocolate, but he wasn't really. He did, however, enjoy eating it, it was his favourite food. Had there have been a holiday for bacon, Sirius would have received many gifts at that time. It was the same thing with Remus and his chocolate.

Sirius was not compiling his list of gifts at the moment though, because he was currently dozing off at the back Transfiguration on the last day of Hogwarts' second term of school. He jerked awake as the bell sounded the end of term. Luckily, McGonagall had not seen him taking his nap.

Finally, it was time to relax. It was a plus that he wouldn't have to go home for Easter either, considering that students scarcely went home over the short break. He left the classroom with James and Remus. James stopped suddenly, causing Sirius to hit his head on the back of James's. Sirius saw his friend's hand fly to his scruffy hair. Lily Evans stalked past them, her long red hair rippling in the afternoon light. Seeing James, she turned her nose up and walked faster. Her friends Alice, Marlene McKinnon, Mary MacDonald, and Emaline Vance trailed behind her. James stared as she walked by, seeming somewhat entranced by her apparent beauty. His mouth was half open to say some form of greeting, but Lily had marched away before he got a chance to say anything.

"Come on Prongs.. let's go up to the common room", Sirius turned his friend in the right direction and moved him along.

When they arrived in the Gryffindor common room, they found Peter waiting for them after another free lesson in the library. He greeted them as he usually did after time spent in the library on his own, mostly complaining about how dreary it was in there, as well as how he wished he could have been as clever as them, so that he might have achieved more classes. He did cheer up slightly when Remus offered to play a game of Exploding Snap with him. As the two of them set up the cards, Sirius followed James over to the window.

"Nice weather, isn't it", said James positively, taking in the view of the sunlit grounds

"Ah, yeah", said Sirius.

James was acting strangely. Sirius wasn't sure what it was, but James seemed even more lively than he usually was (if that was possible). Sirius was worried, because after their recent sighting of Lily Evans earlier, and now James's heightened confidence, he was sure James was going to do something that wasn't very well planned.

"I want to go flying", said James, "I mean, the sky's clear."

"Oh, right", said Sirius.

James started staring out of the window again, this time he looked as if he was thinking.

"Are you going to enlighten me of the cause for this sudden urge to take to the air?" asked Sirius, curiously.

"No", said James, "I mean, just wait here I'll get my broom. You don't need to worry about yours".

"You do that", said Sirius, now watching his friend with concern.

Sirius stood and observed James going up to the dormitories. He stood there, thinking rapidly about what James was going to do. Not that Sirius really minded James partaking in hair-brained schemes, as long as he got come along too. He was, however, fully aware that this could possibly be some kind of outlandish attempt at asking Lily on a trip to Hogsmeade. Sirius had been waiting for the point when James would resort to making rather grand gestures to win Lily's heart. He had not done anything drastic yet, mostly trying to chat with her, asking her out from time to time, as well as incessantly annoying her. But what would James do? Fly around and show off at her. No, he had done that during Quidditch matches many times, and Sirius felt that his best friend had different plans. Sirius was drawn from his pondering as James descended the dormitory steps, now with his broom tucked under his arm.

"Wha-", he was about to ask James what he had been looking at when the man himself was pulling Sirius away by his arm.

Sirius looked long enough to see a glimpse of red hair on the lake side, and his worries grew.

Sirius followed his best friend silently, intrigued as to where they were going. Before long, James had lead him out of the castle and towards the lake. He stopped under a beech tree. This was the very tree were Snape had called Lily a Mudblood the previous year. Sirius did not want a repeat of her reaction to James's presence on that occasion. Sirius turned his view towards the lake to see Lily and her friends sitting close to the water's edge.

"Right. I need you to distract Evans", said James.

" _What?_ ", exclaimed Sirius.

"Shhh, quiet down", warned James.

"How in the name of Merlin's boxers am I supposed to distract _Evans_?" Sirius was not too keen on this idea. If James had have just brought him along for a prank or some fun, he wouldn't have minded, but this was not his cup of tea.

"I don't know!", James whispered harshly, "Go talk to her or something".

With that, James pushed Sirius out into the open and walked off with his broom over his shoulder. Sirius froze like a deer in headlights as he noticed all five girls were staring at him.

"Heeey. Evans. Ladies", he said slowly. None of them seemed very happy to see him, "How are things?"

"They were good until you arrived", said Lily coldly.

 _Great idea Prongs. Just leave me here to talk to the only girls in the school who hate me,_ Sirius thought angrily.

"So, the- the weather", he seized the first thing that entered his head, remembering James comment on the sky earlier, "Yes! The weather! Spring, such a lovely time of year. You know, for the grass to grow and stuff. The, ah, rabbits really like it, I hear. That's probably why Muggles have that fat bunny thing that apparently gives them Easter eggs-"

He was just blindly blathering on, trying to think of something else to say. Lily was looking extremely unimpressed, as were her four friends. But thankfully, Sirius was saved, though not in the way he had expected. Something came in at top speed from the air and collided with Sirius and the group of girls. Marlene and Emaline fell backwards into the lake, squealing at the still chilly water, and Sirius, Alice, as well as Mary fell over on their backs on the grass. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

Sirius looked around to see what it was when he spotted James soaring away on his broom, which know carried a kicking and screaming Lily. Sirius stood up with lightning speed to get a better look at the spectacle. However, he fell back down with hysterics at his friend's antics. James was looping and twirling in the air, and Sirius could not control his laughter, James had surely gone mad.

"PUT ME DOWN NOW, POTTER!" shouted Lily from above.

"Evans- please just hear me out!" James said back loudly, no doubt trying to shout over the wind.

They were making quite a racket. Students were now gathering around the shore, looking up at the pair on the broom with disbelief on their faces. Only now, did Sirius notice there was something wrong. Lily had started trying to control the broom with disastrous results. It flipped upside-down, dropping both her and James into the lake water with resounding splashes. Sirius doubled over with mirth. This had to be the funniest thing he had seen all year.

Lily clambered onto the shore, where she was helped up by Mary and a shivering Marlene. The five girls marched past Sirius, glaring as they went. Next came poor old James. He sloshed half-heartedly out of the water carrying a soggy broom.

"That was absolutely brilliant!" exclaimed Sirius, still laughing, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.

"Yeah, well now I'm all wet", said James grouchily, "And she still didn't want to come for a fly."

"Oh well Prongs, at least that was one way to sweep her off her feet!" Sirius laughed again, but quietened himself as much as he could for James's sake.


	17. Evil On Easter

Easter morning dawned bright and cheerful. Birds were twittering around outside. Sirius got up and stretched. James was snoring loudly, it was annoying, but Sirius was thankful that his friend was not singing again. He was even more thankful than he usually would be, considering that after James had gotten himself dumped in the lake, he had caught a mild chest cold, which would have worsened any singing. Remus was already awake, talking to Peter and laughing. Gideon and Fabian where unwrapping Easter eggs sent from home, and it appeared that Frank had already left the dormitory.

"Morning" Sirius yawned towards Remus and Peter.

"Morning Sirius", said Remus.

"Happy Easter Padfoot", smiled Peter.

"So, I have your present here", Remus told Sirius, revealing a package of Easter Eggs.

"Oh, sorry Moony. I couldn't get yours... See there was a hold up on the eggs from Honeyduke's, so, you know..." Sirius was joking with him.

"Too bad", sighed Remus, "I guess I'll have to keep yours and eat them."

"We both know you wouldn't do that', Sirius sending Remus patronizing look, taking out his own present for Remus and exchanging it with him in turn for his gift, "Or maybe you would. Best not judge when it comes to chocolate."

"No, best not", Remus nodded sagely.

"Jamesy, wakey, wakey", said Sirius, turning to his still sleeping friend, "Oi! Wake up! It's Easter!"

Sirius took his present for James and threw it at the ruffled hair that was poking out from under the bed sheets.

"Aaaahhh!" screamed James.

"Happy Easter Prongs", laughed Sirius.

"Oh, yeah, Happy Easter! I forgot that it was customary to wake up your ill, sleeping friends by violently pummelling them with cardboard boxes!" replied James with such sarcasm it could have rivalled Remus himself.

Sirius gave another box of eggs over, this time to Peter, who gave him one in return. Sirius had his package of Easter eggs thrown at him by James.

"Mine are all broken", James exclaimed as he opened his present.

"It's okay James, mine are too", Sirius sadly told his friend, "We can cry together!"

He threw himself at James and pretended to weep, until James shoved him onto the floor, where he sat up and pulled a face of distress.

"I'm only trying to help you through hard times!" he called as James made for the bathroom, "You can bury your problems James, it only makes life harder."

Dressed and fed with a few chocolate eggs each, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter left their dormitory for the common room downstairs. There they found an unhappy looking Lily. James hurried for the portrait hole, fearful of reprimand, followed by Peter, while Remus and Sirius stopped to talk to her.

"Hey Evans, how are you feeling after the little episode at the lake?" asked Sirius mischievously.

"That's none of your business, Black", said Lily haughtily, "But if you must know, Potter has given me a dreadful cold after dumping me in the lake".

"It's okay Evans, he suffered the same fate", Sirius called as Lily made to storm from the room, "Maybe you two could bond over it. In a corner away from me, preferably, I don't fancy getting sick too!"

Lily was nothing but a flash of red hair leaving through the portrait hole when Sirius finished his talking.

"Well then", said Sirius, taken aback, "Glad we cleared that up then..."

The four friends went down the staircases and into the Great Hall. Lily was hurrying along in front of them with Mary and Marlene. Sirius and his friends took a seat down the back of the Gryffindor table. Above them, the ceiling of the Great Hall showed them a clear Spring sky, spread with wispy white clouds. Each house table was decorated for Easter. There were bright streamers of pink blue and green, accompanied by little baskets containing a live white rabbit in each. Over at the Hufflepuff table, Sirius could see some third years exclaiming in delight at the fluffy animals, taking them from the baskets and hugging them gently. On the other hand, it was hard for him to ignore some Slytherins prodding at the rabbits with their wands and smiling. Sirius had gotten half way through some toast when Remus called out, "Hey guys, look at this!"

Sirius moved around to see what Remus was talking about, as did James and Peter. Gideon and Fabian as well as Frank and Alice bunched around too.

"Here", said Remus, "There's been another disappearance".

Sirius examined the front page of _The Daily Prophet_. It did indeed have a picture of a ministry wizard with blond hair plastered across his forehead on the front, with the title _Ministry Member Missing._ Disappearances happened more and more frequently these days, with Death Eater trouble constantly brewing. Despite this, they were only ever mentioned casually in _The Prophet_. It was as if the newspaper feared retaliation from the organisation surrounding Voldemort, which was not actually that unreasonable. Disappearances were only seen as small articles in the back of the paper most times. Sirius assumed this instance probably only made the front page because this wizard was high up in the ministry. Remus turned to page three for the whole story:

 _Tuesday evening, ministry wizard, Wenzel Spilsbury, was reported missing by his wife. He was last seen by a friend and colleague, leaving the Ministry of Magic building in London earlier that day. His wife commented on this matter._

 _"He usually Apparates from London to here", she said, meaning their home in Crème Lakes, "It was getting awfully late, and I knew he didn't have much work to do at the Ministry. I was waiting and he never came home..."_

 _By this point, Mrs Spilsbury had become too distressed for further comment. The cause of his disappearance is unexplained, but may be the work of a dark magic organisation named the Death Eaters. If anyone sees Mr Spilsbury or any other witch or wizard reported missing, send an urgent owl to the Missing Wizards Hotline._

"Well, that's another one then", said Sirius glumly.

"They're getting worse, these disappearances" stated James.

"Wouldn't be surprised", said Frank in earnest, "The way things are going."

Sadly, things were going to get a lot worse.

##

It was around eight o'clock in the night when Sirius, James, Remus and Peter sat in the squashy armchairs by the common room fire. They were accompanied by the Prewett twins as well Frank. Other students filled the room, reading books for leisure rather than study, a group of second years were playing Exploding Snap in the corner. Ariella was sitting at a small table consoling her friend, Kass Jarven, who had spent the day with her boyfriend, the boyfriend that had only just broke up with her that afternoon.

Sirius and his friends had spent most of their day out in the grounds. They had even managed to start a game of Quidditch, though there weren't as many players and there was a lot rules left forgotten. Tired and happy, full from dinner in the Great Hall, the Marauders and their friends were joking and laughing amongst themselves. Sirius was feeling relatively content, and Remus was more lively than usual, he had enjoyed his chocolate today.

That was until the wireless in the corner was turned up by a seventh-year. It crackled into life, sending a slightly static voice across the room. Sirius barely payed any attention to the sound, merely ignoring it and continuing with the story that he was relating to Frank and the Prewett twins.

"..and then he swooped down and scooped her up into the air on his broom", Sirius told the three of them, "Too bad for him though, because Evans was _not_ happy. She grabbed the broom off James and tried to put it back down on the ground. Didn't work though, it flipped upside down and _plop,_ into the lake. And that is why James Potter and Lily Evans have colds even though it is early April."

"Merlin, James-" Frank was about to ridicule James even further than Sirius had managed when he was cut off by the radio reporter from the Wizarding Wireless Network.

 _"-another update on the situation from the Muggle park in Yorkshire"_ , read the wizard on the other end of the wireless, _"It has been confirmed that around 70 Muggles have been killed in the largest attack seen so far by the dark magic group Death Eaters with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at their helm. A lot of work has gone into the investigation by Aurors and members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Now, in case you've only just tuned in, the attack happened at approximately 12:50pm earlier today, at a park in a small Muggle town in Yorkshire. The Muggle victims involved were attending an Easter Sunday picnic event organised by the local Muggle council. The damage wreaked upon the park has allowed the Ministry to cover up the incident by informing the Muggle population that the cause was a gas leak explosion. The extensive problems made present by the incident have caused much difficulty for the Ministry in the way of falsifying information in the name of maintaining the International Statute of Secrecy. The trouble that they are having at the Ministry, as well as the problems with the earlier investigation due to a lot of guesswork being needed, was caused by the outstanding and horrific fact that there are no bodies-"_

The wireless was turned off. Then there was silence. Small muttering began to fill the air. Sirius registered the dull feeling in him as shock.

"Blimey", said Gideon, "Where the hell are the bodies?"

Frank left abruptly and hurried for Alice. She was looking teary and worried and Lily and Marlene were trying to comfort her. It appeared that she had family in that town, and Aunt and a group of cousins. Sometimes they would attend the local picnic, but she didn't think they'd gone this year due her cousin being rather sick with Dragon Pox.

"I have no idea", said James pensive and concerned behind his glasses.

"Unless.." Remus began, but he stopped, seemingly not wanting to share his thought for fear it was something too awful.

"What?" asked Peter, looking quite fearful.

"I just thought that- Merlin it would be awful", Remus rubbed the bridge of his nose before continuing, "What if they took the bodies for something. What if they had a use for them."

"Are you saying-" Sirius already knew what Remus was saying and he already knew it was most likely true, "Are you saying- that they are going to make Inferi?"

"It's possible", sighed Remus.

"Very possible", agreed Fabian.


	18. Desperation, Detonation, and Dementation

The report about the attack in Yorkshire was heard, not only in the Gryffindor common room, but in the Ravenclaw common room as well. The Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs read all about it in _The Prophet_ the next morning. Some, to use a fairly accurate phrase, read it and wept. One Slytherin girl had been notified of her grandparents' murders. A boy from Ravenclaw had his older brother and his brother's wife reported dead to him. They were taken home immediately by morose parents, plucked from amongst the other students in their grief. It was not only these two students that were stolen away and apparently hidden from the danger of going to a magic school in the midst of a wizarding war. Many student left on the train that Easter holidays, not intending to return. Gideon and Fabian had received a letter from their mother, who was adamant that they come home. The twins sent back a letter in protest, and it was agreed that they could at least stay until the end of that year.

Alice had gotten what would be considered the best of news in light of the current situation. Her cousin's case of Dragon Pox had worsened. Seeking treatment, her aunt, as well as the rest of her children, had left their home on the day before the doomed picnic. They had gone to Saint Mungo's in London, where cousin got the right care. He was better now, apparently, and Alice's Aunt had no friends or other family that had died in the attack. It was sad that not everyone could be so lucky.

"I don't understand it", said Sirius, speaking of the leaving students, as he sat in the common room one afternoon "They would be ten times as safe here than at home".

"But they don't understand it either", said James in explanation, "Almost everyone going home has at least one Muggle parent. And the Muggles don't know what's going on in the wizarding world. They probably think that if their kids are back home in the Muggle world they will be safer".

"But they won't be!" Sirius said exasperatedly, "Muggles are one of the main targets!"

"Sirius, we know", said Remus, trying to sooth his friend, "But they are scared and worried. Imagine if the people you cared about most were off in a completely different place, full of things you don't understand, and suddenly that world has very dangerous people in it. Would you want your loved ones to stay there?"

"No, but the world, magical or not, will always have dangerous people in it", Sirius explained, frustrated.

"But these peoples' view of things are twisted by fear", said Remus, "And fear can make people do stupid things".

##

Later that week, after most students whose parent wanted them home had left, and the third term of the year had begun, Sirius discovered a new notice on the common room board as he left for breakfast. As his friends gathered to read the notice, Sirius saw that it informed them of an Apparition course available for all sixth year students.

"Well I know I'm definitely going to", he told his fellow Marauders, "Imagine not having to _walk_ ".

"That is a brilliant point, Padfoot, which is exactly why I'm going to learn how to Apparate too", agreed James.

"You do realise you're still going to have to walk sometimes, don't you?" asked Remus.

"Walk while we can Apparate, never!" said James.

"Whatever you think", said Remus, giving up, "I'll take the course. But _I'm_ still going to actually _walk_ ".

"What about you Peter?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know if I could manage it", said Peter hesitantly.

"Peter, you are going to take this apparition course even if it kills you", said Sirius sternly.

So with that, James and Sirius frog-marched Peter over to the sign-up form and forced him to put his name down.

##

The first lesson of the course took place the next week, on a warm Wednesday afternoon. Sirius and his fellow Marauders arrived in the Great Hall, where all their lessons would be conducted. There were many students already filling the Hall. All where sixth-years, and all were relatively excited.

As a member of a pureblood family, Sirius had always known he would learn to Apparate, and by the time he was seventeen, he would be allowed to Apparate almost anywhere. It was the same for James. He had many cousins in his family, and they were all at least ten years older than him, and he had grown up seeing them use this unique power, always longing for the day when he could appear wherever he wanted at will.

Remus was also eager to learn. Being half-blood, he had experience his fair share of long journeys in a Muggle car, and he welcomed the opportunity to speed his travels. Peter was the only one of the Marauders who was hesitant to become a licensed Apparator. Both his parents where Muggles, and as he had told his friends, Muggles looked forward to learning how to drive cars at the same age as wizards learned to Apparate. Getting a car license, he explained, was more his goal, as it would be easier and apparently less dangerous. Nevertheless, Peter accompanied his three friends to the first lesson.

When the four boys entered the Hall, they saw that all the heads of houses were at the front of the room, as well as a man Sirius assumed was the Apparition instructor. The instructor was very small and frail looking. His hair was a pale grey, and he seemed half transparent from where Sirius was standing. Sirius wondered if all the man's Apparating had worn down his very existence.

"Good morning all", said the wizard when everyone was finally quiet, "I am Wilkie Twycross, and I will be your apparition instructor for the rest of the course. Usually, it is impossible to Apparate inside Hogwarts" - "Damn it!" said James - "As well as to and from the castle. However, your Headmaster has lifted all the necessary spells in this Hall, in order for us to continue our lesson."

"I told you that you couldn't Apparate in here", said Remus to James.

"I know, I know", James said frustratedly, "I forgot about that."

"Now if I could have everyone with a clear space of five feet in front of them, we can get on with the method of apparition", the wispy instructor called across the Hall.

They was lots of commotion as everybody scrambled to get their own space. Eventually, everyone had a spot to themselves. Sirius had landed himself between James and Peter, whilst Remus was in front of them, paying close attention to the front of the room. When all the students were settled, Twycross waved his wand and a wooden hoops appeared on the floor before each of them.

"It is important to remember the three D's while learning to apparate. They are Destination, Determination, and Deliberation".

"Right", Sirius muttered to James, "Desperation, Detonation, and Dementation."

The two friends sniggered at this remark. Twycross continued to blab one about each step, elaborating on their meanings and uses in Apparition.

"First, you must focus on your _destination._ Where is it you want to go? What does is look like? Next you must find the _determination_ within yourself to get there. You need to get there, let the want to go to your chosen destination fill up inside of you. Then step forward and turn with _deliberation._ "

Sirius was trying to figure out how best he could manage to Apparate. He doubted he would get it on his first go, but he thought that it would probably only be a short time before his could. Wilkie Twycross began to count down to when the student needed to make their first attempt at landing in the hoop.

"One"

Sirius looked at the middle of the hoop with great concentration.

"Two"

He started to glare at it. He tried to feel some kind of longing to be in the hoop.

"Three"

Sirius turned on the spot as they had been told to do and nearly fell over. He looked around. He hadn't move at all. Neither had anyone else in the hall. Peter had sort of jumped towards his hoop and had fallen on his face. The students tried again and again, in fact, it wasn't until their fifth go that they had some kind of breakthrough.

There was a disgruntled cry of agony and shock. Sirius looked up to see Mary MacDonald lying on the ground with blood pouring out of her arm. The heads of house rushed over. Sirius could see through a gap between their cloaks that McGonagall was casting a healing spell on Mary's arm. The skin was slowly knitting itself back together over the open wound. After a minute or two, McGonagall took Mary up to the hospital to have her arm checked.

"Nothing to worry about", said Twycross, "She just splinched herself. Sometimes body parts or skin tissue can be left behind or damaged when a lack of determination is shown. Now if we just try another few times, we can conclude our first lesson".

"So Jamesy, remember that lack of _desperation_ results in _detonation,_ leading to _dementation_ ", laughed Sirius as he began to spin around again.


	19. Victory For Gryffindor

In the way of Quidditch, Gryffindor was going considerably well. How could they not, with such a fabulous Keeper and talented Seeker? The Gryffindor house Quidditch team had narrowly beaten Hufflepuff in their first match (due to unfavourable circumstances) and had completely crushed Ravenclaw in their previous match. They were second on the leader-board, right after a certain Serpentine bunch. And if there was one thing a Gryffindor hated, it was losing to a Slytherin.

The thought of this is what motivated James above and beyond. His training regime was almost cruel, making his team work hard and long hours on the pitch. Sirius would come back to the common room late at night covered in mud and grass stains, sore from the exertion and in a scarily bad mood. This excessive training put strain on their homework. It seemed that the closer they were to the Quidditch match, the more homework they were receiving, and it was piling up fast.

Due to all of this, it was a surprise when Sirius got up on time for the match. He sat up straight, got changed into his scarlet Quidditch robes and gathered up his broom and Keeper's gloves. He then headed out for the common room, where James was waiting for him.

"You ready mate?" called James from downstairs.

Sirius descended the dormitory stairs and emerged into the common room. The room was filled with his fellow Gryffindors, eager to wish him and his team mates well for the match. Making his way through the small crowd, Sirius found James standing by the portrait hole with Gideon and Fabian.

"Good to go?" asked James.

"Yep", said Sirius, "I'm not going to be late this time."

"We'll win this one for sure", said Gideon.

"With our latest training regime", added Fabian.

"Definitely", agreed Gideon, "It's not like we've been exhausted by the constant hours of Quaffle passing-"

"-or trick flying-" added Fabian.

"-which was completely ridiculous, by the way", finished Sirius, "But we certainly won't go down to Slytherin, so thank you anyway, James."

James simply sighed and began trying obviously hard not to smile.

"Slytherins: if you can't beat 'em- ", started Fabian.

"- then you must be a Hufflepuff", finished Gideon.

The boys trooped out of the common room laughing. When they reached the Quidditch pitch, the four of them entered the changing rooms without delay. The rest of the team was there, ready for the match ahead. Andrea Johnson, Bruce Billson, and their most recent Beater, Lars Nigels, were awaiting James and their pre-match instructions. James elaborated to his team the plans for the match. They Slytherin team had recently gotten a new set of brooms, so they were able to travel much faster. James made room for this, however, with wide plays and patterns he created for passing the Quaffle between and around their opponents.

After James had told each and every one of his team mates what their own specific plays should look like, the Gryffindor team where out on the pitch before they knew it. Sirius hoisted his broom over his shoulder as he exited the changing rooms. The sun outside was bright, and it hurt his eyes as he made his way to the centre of the pitch with his team, where James and Avery, the Slytherin captain, would shake hands. After a bit of aggressive and crushing hand-shaking, James and Avery backed away from each other. Sirius could not help but glance at his brother, who played Slytherin Seeker. The whistle was blown, both teams took to the air, and the commentary began.

"Quaffle in the possession of Gideon Prewett. He passes to Prewett number two, who passes to Potter, who scores the first goal of the match in under two minutes! It's ten - zero to Gryffindor" Frank Longbottom announced to the crowd.

The phrase 'Gryffindor scores!' was repeated often throughout the first ten minutes of the match. Slytherin was losing forty to ten, and Sirius was wondering when they would finally reach his goal posts with the Quaffle in hand.

The time came soon, and Avery was zipping up the pitch with the Quaffle tucked tightly under his arm. He came nearer and nearer to Sirius. The Slytherin swung his broom around to the left, but shot the Quaffle towards the right. Sirius was caught off guard, and the ball flew past his hastily outstretched hand and straight through the right-side goal hoop.

The Slytherin crowd below roared their approval, green banners were raised a little higher. Sirius retrieved the slowly falling Quaffle, promptly passing it out of the goal area to Fabian, who took it up the pitch.

"Forty-ten, Slytherin scores at last. I was wondering when they would... Not to worry, Prewett in possession of the Quaffle, passing to Potter, oh! Intercepted there by Avery, who passes to Macnair..."

The chaser was only feet away, when Sirius did the only thing he could think of. He remembered reading it in 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. Sirius rolled sideways off his broom, holding on with his right foot and hand as he let his body hang in the air. They Quaffle hit his foot, from there proceeded to kick it to Fabian, who then scored down the other end. Possibly the most spectacular save of Hogwarts history had been made. Sirius pulled himself back up onto his broom, breath heaving, watching the Gryffindors below shout in triumph.

The crowd erupted into renewed cheers as Andrea swooped down, zooming along behind the little golden ball that was the Snitch. The Snitch was hovering inches above the ground when she fell off her broom, hitting the grass. Sirius wondered what Andrea was playing at when she actually landed, face down, on top of the Golden Snitch. Andrea reached under her stomach, to pull the Snitch out from underneath her. She held the snitch high for all to see.

"The Snitch has been caught!" called an ecstatic Frank over the commentary, "One-hundred and Fifty points to Gryffindor! That means a win for the lions! Gryffindor wins two-hundred to twenty!"

Sirius descended from the air with the rest of his team. The Gryffindor team were swarmed by supporters and lifted onto shoulders. Sirius, Andrea, and James, the heroes of the match, had Gryffindor banners draped over their shoulders. As captain, James accepted the large golden cup from a grinning Dumbledore. The crowd carried them all the way to the common room, where all the Gryffindors hurried in to start the celebrations.

The music started up, a song from the Six Jinxes. Fabian came in with the Butterbeer. Sirius and James hopped up onto the table in the middle of the room.

"We've beaten Slytherin!" cried James to the crowded common room, who responded with cheering.

"Another win!" roared Sirius.

"To Gryffindor!" shouted James, holding up his Butterbeer.

"TO GRYFFINDOR!" yelled back Sirius and the rest of their house.

They drank the toast. Sirius and James started dancing on top of their table whilst everyone around them started to celebrate. Frank turned up the old Gramophone. This caused the coloured musical notes wafting out the funnel to grow bigger, sending flashes of coloured lights across the room.

The party was the best and loudest that Gryffindor had seen in a long while. Everyone was dancing and laughing, basking in their victory. Sirius and James, giddy with euphoria, yelled themselves hoarse about winning against Slytherin and such. Frank had prepared a large banner, drawn by himself, depicting a large lion.

Later in the night, Sirius bewitched the lion to say rude things and swear at the Slytherins, with the main targets being Macnair, Avery and Nott. Everyone found this highly amusing, even Lily, who smiled a little. Remus thought it was great, for a change, and he was letting things go for once. Sirius found himself and James surrounded more often than not, by their 'fan-club', and for once, they actually danced with them.

This was until Sirius had finally had his fill of an incessant Miranda Grollings, and extracted himself from the crowd to join Ariella, who was, for once, with her friend Kass. As he reached them, Ariella smiled brightly, and Kass gave him a sour look.

"Hey", he said to them over the loudly playing gramophone, "Having a good time?"

"Good enough...", Kass sneered, before moving away from her friend and Sirius.

"What's her problem?" asked Sirius, watching the blond girl saunter off.

"She doesn't like you, for some reason", Ariella explained.

"What? Who wouldn't like me?" Sirius asked in false surprise.

"Her, apparently", Ariella rolled her eyes, "She thought that I spent too much time with you, while she was off with what's-his-face. Like I'd found a new friend to replace her or something."

"Me? Replace her?" Sirius pretended to look shocked, "I'm far too wonderful to replace someone like _that_ ".

"Sure you are..." Ariella smirked.

"Hey! I am wonderful", Sirius said, "If you don't like me, I'll just leave."

"Okay", Ariella said.

"Well, I'm going to stay, so too bad for you", he replied.

"If you must", sighed Ariella, looking across the crowd at someone, "She's started to ease up on him, you know."

"Who?" asked Sirius, having no clue as to what she was talking about.

"Lily Evans", said Ariella, "She doesn't hate James Potter half as much as she used to. Well... maybe only half as much."

"You mean she likes him? Not a chance", scoffed Sirius.

"I never said she liked him", said Ariella, "But if he deflates his head a bit, something good could come of it."

"And how do you know?" Sirius asked her sceptically.

"Because, I'm a girl-"

"Well, _obviously._ And I suppose that girls have some kind of special power, and they just know these things"

"No", Ariella looked at him, half exasperated, "It means I share a dormitory and bathroom with her, and I hear her talk about everything."

"Oh, and what does she say?" asked Sirius, over a particularly cruel phrase shouted by the lion overhead.

"It's what she doesn't say", Ariella said confusingly, "Lily doesn't complain about James nearly as much as she used to."

" _And?_ " Sirius questioned, "That could just mean she has more important stuff to do than complain about James, and trust me, there are much better things to do with your time."

"It means that she doesn't mind him as much", Ariella related to him, " _You_ trust _me,_ I'm a girl, and we just know these things..."

"Look at us, talking about this stuff", Sirius observed, "I demand we start a conversation about dragons immediately."

"Much more interesting, I agree", Ariella stated, "I prefer the Welsh Green, myself."

"The Chinese Fireball's way better", Sirius argued, "They are amazing when it comes to fire-breathing- But can I tell James this?"

"What, that you like dragons based on their ability for violence? I'm sure he already knows by now", laughed Ariella.

"No, I mean with Lily", Sirius sighed.

"I guess, I don't know if you could explain it that well... Just as long as you don't say I told you", Ariella said.

"Fine, I'll let him know", Sirius decided, "So I'll be going now."

"Finally", smiled Ariella, as Sirius backed away through the crowd.

The Gryffindors continued their partying until about two o'clock in the morning, when Professor McGonagall came in wearing her tartan dressing gown and told them to stop it before the entire house got detention. Sirius could not have been happier to ignore her waring, so he and James did. But, about another hour after McGonagall told them to, they slowly toned down their ruckus and one by one tottered off to bed humming the catchy Six Jinxes tune of 'Let the Potion Burn'.


	20. Muggle-born In Trouble

Gryffindor house was very lucky that it was a Sunday the day after their raucous partying, because the first to rise rose quite late. They were all very lethargic and tired from their lack of sleep the previous night. The other houses found all this rather funny, when the tired Gryffindors showed up for breakfast. The Slytherins made the most of their rivals' sleep deprived state, still being bitter about yesterday's match.

Sirius did not go to breakfast just yet, but rolled over and covered his head with his pillow.

"No Moony, gerroff", he mumbled.

He heard Remus mutter a reply and walk out of the dormitory. Sirius peeked out from under his pillow to see the time of eleven twenty-three on his magical alarm clock. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes. As he moved to get out of bed, he noticed that his muscles were aching from the Quidditch match. Especially his left leg, which he had strained pulling off his last save. He had never been so tired and sore in his life. The boisterous Quidditch match coupled with the biggest post-match party he had ever been to, had taken its toll.

Sirius discovered that he was still in his Quiddtich gear, and had the Gryffindor flag from the match still entangled around his shoulders. He slowly shuffled about the room, getting changed and brushing his teeth. He discovered his hair in a state of emergency, still with specks of mud from the match, as well as a sweet wrapper stuck in it. James had started to wake up and get ready too. It appeared he felt quite the same as Sirius did. They both headed down to the common room.

The two boys arrived to find Peter asleep in an armchair from the party, and a group of giggling first years looking up at the lion banner from last night. Sirius had completely forgotten about it. He looked up at it to see the charm had finally started to wear off, and the lion was now saying disjointed profanities.

"Should we leave it there?" James consulted him.

"Why not?" said Sirius, he couldn't care less.

Sirius shrugged and the left the common room for a slightly early lunch in the Great Hall. They walked through the giant oak door to various greetings.

"Wicked party last night!" exclaimed Gideon.

"Yeah, best we've ever had!" agreed his twin.

"Hey Black!" called Macnair, "What was that last save called? Dead cat?"

"You're just jealous!" retorted Sirius, "It's not that hard anyway. You should know, considering your better at falling of your broom than you are at keeping hold of the Quaffle!"

Sirius and James sat down as Macnair started to rise. But he sank down into his chair again, after McGonagall spotted him, handing him a stern look of disapproval.

"Moony, how you feeling?" asked Sirius. Remus looked a little ill, he had eaten a strange cream tart the night before.

"Probably better than James is, he worked pretty hard at the match yesterday", laughed Remus, "What about you mate? You fell off the table and hit your head".

"So I did", Sirius remembering his accident, which had occurred shortly before heading off to bed, and feeling the lump on the back of his skull, "I also feel like I never want to see a single Bertie Botts Bean ever again- two vomit flavours in a row, I'm telling you- tasted even worse after that bit of Gideon's Firewhisky…"

Sirius finished his lunch, and he and the other two walked out onto the grounds. They sat down by the lake under the beech tree that they had used for shade last year, after their O.W.L exams. The sky was a clear blue. The grass around them hummed with the activity of insects and the sunlight illuminated the lake. Sirius leant back against the beech tree as James got out his old Snitch, and Remus started to read a book. Sirius closed his eyes savouring the relaxation, it was what he needed after yesterday's excitement. He was happy, sitting here with his friends, at Hogwarts. He wished that this tranquillity didn't have to be interrupted because of the war. But for the meantime- "Aaaaaaeeeegh!" Sirius sat bolt upright as he heard a scream.

"What was that?" asked James.

"No! No! Eeeeeegh!" the person screaming was now begging.

Sirius jumped up to the protest of his aching muscles and ran in the direction of the screaming. James and Remus quickly followed. Whoever it was, Sirius was in the mindset to save them from whatever was happening. The screams grew louder as he passed a wall of Hogwarts that obscured the rest of the grounds and lake from view. He identified the screaming as female. Sirius could see up ahead that there was a crowd of Slytherins. As he drew nearer he saw a detached group of Slytherins pointing their wand at something on the ground. The group consisted of three seventh years, Mulciber, Avery, and Macnair.

Sirius then realised that what they were pointing their wands at. It was Mary MacDonald. She was writhing and screaming on the ground, her eyes filled with pain and terror. What Sirius was seeing struck him in the stomach like a blow. They were using a hex Sirius had not seen before. It was sending volts of green energy along her squirming form.

It looked like something he had seen in the Muggle Studies textbook. They had learnt that Muggles had harnessed some kind of energy named 'electricity', and if they weren't careful, they could be what was called 'electrified'. The effects of this spell seemed very similar to the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. Sirius could tell that was not what they were doing, but it was quite similar.

"STOP!" he bellowed, "STOP IT!"

He pushed through the crowd of Slytherin onlookers. He stood in front of Mary, with his wand pointed at the Slytherins, shielding her. James and Remus joined him by his side.

"We were just showing this Mudblood her rightful place", drawled Macnair viciously.

"What did she do wrong?! What?" James asked vigorously.

"She kept hanging 'round", Mulciber, "We told her to go away, seeing as we were discussing things that she didn't deserve to hear. She wouldn't leave, stupid thing-"

Sirius hit Mulciber square in the face with his fist. The boy was instantly bowled over. Some of the Slytherins that were onlooking began to hurry away, obviously not looking for a fight. Mulciber sat up and grabbed at his bleeding nose.

"Don't talk about anyone like that again", Sirius said to them, "You arse."

"Go, now", said Remus, his voice uncharacteristically menacing.

"Come on", said Macnair, "Get up".

He hoisted his injured friend to his feet and the three of them skulked away, flashing Sirius a rude gesture. Sirius wanted nothing more than to follow them, and hurt them, but he knew that Mary needed his help as well as his friends'. They Slytherins clearly did not want a fight, and now was not the time.

"Come on Padfoot", said Remus, his voice calm again "We'd better take Mary to the hospital wing".

Sirius breathed out a great sigh, letting the anger leave his body, "Okay".

He scooped up the now unconscious Mary and held her in his arms. She was only small, and it would be fairly easy for him to carry her. James collected her bag and the three friends walked off to the hospital wing. Many people stared at the strange procession. Some whispered and others simply looked worried or frightened. Sirius, James, and Remus finally reached the hospital wing with Mary.

"Oh my, what has happened here?" asked Madam Pomfrey as she came rushing out of her office towards them.

"It was a group of Seventh year Slytherins", explained James hurriedly as Sirius put Mary down into the nearest bed, "I don't know what they did but when we got there it looked like they were torturing her. She was lying on the ground screaming and-"

"It wasn't the Cruciatus Curse?" gasped Madam Pomfrey.

"No, it was something else", said Sirius. He then went on to describe the effects and appearance of the spell, suppressed anger in his voice.

"I see", said Madam Pomfrey when he had finished, "Well I'm quite sure I know what it was. I'm afraid the she will have to go to Saint Mungo's for her recovery. But don't worry, she will be quite alright, in time. In the meantime, I will need you go to Professor McGonagall's office. I will notify her, and you will need to wait until she comes back".

Madam Pomfrey pulled the covers around Mary and hurried into her office. Sirius, James and Remus headed out of the hospital wing. The whole severity of what he had just witnessed finally sank in and Sirius felt rage rise inside him once again. He clenched his fists inside his pockets and walked faster.

"Sirius!" a fourth year girl with mousey hair ran up to him, "What happened to Mary? Is she okay?"

"No, not really", replied James curtly.

"Oh God! Can I see her? It's just I'm her sister and-" the girl began to panic.

"Just go in" said Remus calmly to her, "She unconscious, but Madam Pomfrey is looking after her."

The short girl hurried to the large hospital wing doors and slipped through into the room beyond. Sirius, James, and Remus continued to McGonagall's office. It was a way away from the hospital wing, but they rushed, eager to tell her of the torturing Slytherins. They reached the office to find it empty, so they sat in their usual chairs before her desk. Sirius took his seat and waited.

Remus sat on his left, his hands knitted together, a frown on his face. He looked like this whenever he was concerned, and that was quite often. Sirius could see faint, premature lines streaking his forehead. James was occasionally ruffling the back of his hair and puffing out air in an exasperated way. He had his eyebrows raised in worry and was resting his forehead on his fist. James was also a picture somebody fretting. Sirius leaned his chair back on its two rear legs, staring at the ceiling. He let the chair back down and sighed gruffly, impatient for the Professor to arrive.

Sirius watched as a fly landed on the desk in front of them. It suddenly fluttered off as McGonagall opened the door with a bang. James's head slipped off his hand and Remus stopped frowning. Sirius looked round, his dark hair flopping in his eyes.

"Boys", said McGonagall with an air of urgency, "The headmaster needs to see you. Now".


	21. Dark Spells And Consequences

Sirius got up and left the room behind McGonagall, James and Remus followed. McGonagall lead them along the corridor, then up the moving staircases, onto a small landing, and finally they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Pademelon" said McGonagall, and the large gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office jumped aside.

She ushered the three boys onto the spiral staircase. They all waited with baited breath as the staircase wound up to Dumbledore's door. They hopped off the stair case and McGonagall knocked on the thick and ancient looking wood.

"Come in", Sirius heard Dumbledore say from within.

McGonagall opened they office door and Sirius, James, and Remus went in. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk with his fingertips pressed together in thought.

"Take a seat", the old headmaster said, and he nodded at three chairs before his desk.

James sat in the middle, Sirius sat down on his left, and Remus sat on his other side.

"I wish to know what happened to Miss MacDonald", said Dumbledore quite calmly.

"She was hexed by a group of Slytherins", started James, "The hex was obviously dark magic and it-"

"Madam Pomfrey has informed me of the circumstances, Mr Potter", Dumbledore interrupted, "I want to know what any of her torturers might have said to any of you, how you managed to save her".

"Well, I heard some screaming, which turned out to be Mary, and we ran over to see what it was", explained Sirius, "They were hexing her and she fell unconscious about the time we reached them. I sort of, stood in front of her, to protect her. Remus and James helped. And then I sort of, um, had a _confrontation_ with Walden Macnair".

"By confrontation I assume you are implying that you hit young Mr Macnair?" asked Dumbledore.

"Well, I-", Sirius started to reply.

"Yes, he did", said Remus, and Sirius shot him a mutinous look, " _But_ it was effective in keeping them away from Mary".

"As I was saying", Sirius began again, "After that the other two took off and then the rest of the Slytherins watching just kind of left. Then I carried Mary up to the hospital wing".

"Did any of them say why they did this to Miss MacDonald?" inquired Dumbledore.

"Well, Macnair said something", said James, "It was awful though, he called Mary a Mudblood".

"He said Professor", stated Sirius through clenched teeth, "that he was putting a Mudblood in their rightful place".

McGonagall gasped from near the doorway and muttered, "Disgusting".

"Do you know who else was involved?" questioned Dumbledore.

"The three were in seventh year", said Remus.

"Macnair, Avery and Mulciber", listed James.

"There were no doubt countless others from the same house, who merely watched the event occur. I am afraid I see no reason to punish them without punishing the whole of Slytherin house. After all, we cannot tell which of them were there or not", the old wizard said, "But as for the three students in question, I will see them in a minute and decide their punishment. For your heroic acts, I will award each of you fifty points. You may leave now".

Sirius sighed and heaved himself out of his chair. He, James and Remus left through the doorway and headed back to their common room. As they passed the windows, Sirius could now see that the grounds were glistening with moonlight. He didn't know how long they had been waiting in McGonagall's office but it seemed a fair while.

When they stepped through the portrait hole, they saw that no-one had gone down to dinner yet. Immediately they were swarmed by people wanting know what happened to Mary.

"What happened?"

"Who killed her?"

"She's dead? How come no-one told me?"

"Did the Giant Squid really kill the Slytherin bullies?"

"Hi, I'm Bertha Jorkins. By the way, is it true that they were arrested by Ministry Wizards?"

"SHUT IT!" Sirius yelled at them all, "Don't you think we've already been asked enough?!"

"Yeah", agreed James, "Anyway, I don't know why you're asking us, since half of you seem to think the Giant Squid saved her".

With that, Sirius, James and Remus stalked up to the dormitory. Peter was lying on his bed, reading a magical comic book, complete with moving drawings.

"There you guys are", he squeaked, "What happened to you?"

"Nothing Wormtail", said Sirius dismissively, before lying down on his four-poster bed and drawing the curtains around it.

"Peter, don't you listen to anything-", James sighed, "Mary MacDonald was attacked."

"What happened Wormtail", explained Remus, "Is that three Slytherins were bullying Mary, and they used a very nasty hex on her. Luckily we got there in time to help her. She is going to be okay, she just needs a while in Mungoe's."

"Oh yeah, she'll just nip off to the hospital for a bit", said Sirius with great sarcasm from behind his red curtains, "She'll be all fine and dandy after some trauma therapy".

"Sirius there's no need to be like that", said Remus.

Sirius blatantly ignored him. He was feeling very peeved after the episode with the Slytherins, plus he was still tired. He rolled over onto his side, facing away from his friends.

"But why did they do it?" asked Peter.

"Well isn't it obvious?" said James impatiently, "Because she is Muggle-born, and they hate Muggle-borns. Honestly, what Macnair said scared me".

"What did he say?" asked Peter, now looking worried.

"They called her a Mudblood for a start", said Remus.

"You want to know what they said Peter?" said Sirius darkly from his bed, "That they were doing us a favour! That they were putting a Mudblood in their rightful place".

James, Remus, and Peter fell quite. Sirius heard shuffling as Peter shifted uneasily on his bed.

"Who were the Slytherins?" asked the small boy.

"Macnair, Avery, and Mulciber", James rattled off the names.

"What's Dumbledore going to do about it?" Peter queried.

"Expel them, hopefully", James stated.

"It looks like that's what will happen", conceded Remus.

There was another silence, before the sound of the three friends leaving their seats on their beds.

"Padfoot!" called James, "You coming down for dinner?"

No reply.

"You sure?" he said in a silly voice, "Yummy din-dins! Your going to miss ou-"

"Just sod off" Sirius said, "I'm not hungry anyway."

 **##**

The rest of the term passed in a blur. Mary had not yet come back from St. Mungo's. The fifth years took their O. and the seventh years had their N.E. . Sirius and James had rather lot of fun telling the fifth years stupid things that would help them pass. One very gullible boy believed Sirius when he said to carry a bag of troll's toenails in his pocket for the exams.

The day after Mary was attacked, her parents came to the school to collect her things before taking her to Saint Mungo's. Being Muggles they were taken to the hospital by Hagrid. It turned out that Macnair, Avery, and Mulciber lost seventy points each for Slytherin before being expelled. This made Sirius and James quite happy, there was no chance Slytherin could take the house cup from them now.

All the sixth years of the correct age took their apparition test. Sirius, James, Remus all passed, even though they wouldn't be able to Apparate until next year when they were seventeen. Peter failed, he accidently Apparated into a muggle house, and was chased out by an old lady with a rolling pin, much to the amusement of his three friends.

Soon the time came for the last day of school, and that evening, the end of year feast. Sirius wasn't looking forward to the holidays. After ignoring his mother's howler, he knew he was in for it. Sometimes, if he behaved himself (which happened rarely), his mother would let him stay at the Potters. While this does seem uncharacteristically nice of her, she did enjoy having Sirius as far away as possible. The only reason she would ever make him come home or get grounded was because she wished to cause him anguish, no matter how little.

So, Sirius finished packing his trunk with a sigh. He had been quite depressed of late, with the prospect of having another summer with his dreadful family. But he tried not to show it.

"There", said James, shutting his trunk happily, "Now all that's left is to burn these".

Sirius looked up as to see his best friend holding the pair of puffenskein covered socks that his mother had given him. With a flick of his wand, James made the socks disappear in a burst of flames. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.

"That would have to be the only good things those socks have done all year", he chuckled.

"Yeah, well, I'll just have to tell mum I lost them in the wash", said James slowly.

"Guys, if you don't stop mucking around, you're going to miss dinner", said Remus as he poked his head through the door.

"Oooooh, dinner!" said Peter excitedly, "I hope they have some of that chocolate treacle like they did last year. That was amazing".

"Really Peter, wouldn't have thought you liked it", said Remus sarcastically.

"No, the way you were stuffing your face, I thought you would have rather eaten slug repellent", smirked Sirius.

Sirius and James pulled on their cloaks and left the dormitory with Remus and Peter. They headed down to the Great Hall.

Plain banners with the Hogwarts crest on them hung from the enchanted ceiling, which displayed a calm night sky with a sprinkling of stars. Sirius knew that the decorations would transform themselves as soon as the winning house was announced. Sirius sat down with his friends, near to the Prewett twins, Frank and Alice, as well as Ariella and a sullen looking Kass. Slowly, everyone had filed in through the great oaken doors and seated themselves down. Dumbledore finally got up to announce the house places.

"Good evening to you all", he smiled out across the Hall at the anticipating faces of the students, "I hope you have all had a brilliantly fantastic year. I will of course let you enjoy this marvellous supper once I have announced the places for this year's annually house cup! Well, down to business. In fourth and last place we have Slytherin house".

The Slytherins cheered half-heartedly for the sake of appearances. Sirius and James booed loudly, to the disapproval of Remus.

"In third place we have witty Ravenclaw!" continued Dumbledore, everybody clapped politely, "Hufflepuff have worked hard for second place- which mean that Gryffindor takes the house cup!"

Sirius felt immense pride and happiness explode inside of him as he clapped and cheered with the rest of Gryffindor. The other houses shouted congratulations, except Slytherin, who all had very sour looks on their faces.

"We won, we won, ha haha ha ha ha", chanted Sirius and James, in the direction of the Slytherin table.

The banners above them made popping noise and the Great Hall suddenly exploded with red and gold. Streamers of crimson and scarlet as well as yellow and gold floated down upon everyone. Sirius looked over and saw Regulus sitting with his arms folded, appearing as though he wanted to set the streamers on top of his head alight.

Gryffindor celebrated at their table with the magnificent food. After everyone in the hall was full and sleepy, Dumbledore sent them off to bed.


	22. Runaway

The next morning Sirius woke bright and early. He changed into one of his Six Jinxes T-shirts, leather jacket and jeans, before grabbing his trunk and heading downstairs to the common room. It turned out that everyone in his dormitory had awoken brighter and earlier than he had, because they were all sitting there with their own trunks, talking animatedly about what they were going to do during the holidays. When Sirius reached them, they stopped talking. Everyone knew what he would be doing on _his_ holiday.

"Ready for the holidays, James?" he said, trying to ignore the fact that he was not ready at all.

"Yeah, well, you know, nothing special", said James in reply.

Sirius could tell James was just trying to make him feel better about the holidays. Sirius knew for a fact that James always had great holidays. His family were pure-blood as well, not that they cared about blood, but they were extremely wealthy. James had gone through three racing brooms in his life, his parents adored him and would buy him anything. Though, unlike the typical children of the Black family, he was always very grateful, and hardly ever abused this certain privilege. The Potters lived on a large estate out in the country, surrounded by green fields. Lucky for James, it was near a large, deserted moor, where they held quite a few Quidditch games. So James's father always took him to one or two every year. Lucky James.

"Guys, we should get going, we still need to take the carriages down to the platform", said Remus, clearly trying to change the topic.

"Yeah", agreed Frank, "Let's go".

Sirius and the other sixth year boys, along with a lot of other hurrying students, made their ways out of the Entrance Hall and down the road. They passed through the grounds and out the open gates. They reached the carriages. Sirius and the other marauders, along with the Prewett twins, shared a carriage.

"Hey, guess what", said Gideon.

"We're going to be uncles!" exclaimed Fabian.

"Well, again", smiled Gideon.

"Congratulations!" said Sirius.

"So Molly is having another baby?" asked James.

"Yep, this will be our third little nephew", confirmed Fabian.

"Or niece", added Gideon.

"That's great news", said Remus brightly.

"Send us an owl when you find out which one it is", said Sirius.

"Will do", smiled the Prewetts together.

The Prewett twins had a sister, named Molly, who was ten years older than them. About six years ago, Molly married another pureblood man, Arthur Weasley. Shortly after they had a baby. Sirius couldn't remember exactly, but he thinks the boy was called William, or so he assumed since the twins called him Bill. Two years after that they had Charles, or Charlie, or something like that. Sirius could remember when the twins, just twelve years old, had excitedly told everyone how they were again uncles. And now, three years on, they were going to be uncles of three.

The carriage pulled to a stop and they got out, heading for the Hogsmeade platform. Sirius spotted Ariella through the crowd, talking with a group of her friends. He made his way over. He didn't like to interrupt her conversation, but he wanted to say goodbye, since he probably wouldn't be sending any letters over he holiday.

"Hey, Ariella", Sirius greeted her.

Her friends looked at him inquisitively, wondering why he was there.

"Hi Sirius", Ariella smiled at him.

"Just come to say goodbye", he said, "I might not be able to send an owl over the holidays."

"Okay, well see you", she smiled.

Ariella hesitated a little before reaching up and giving Sirius a hug. He was caught off guard, but the hug was warm and welcome, so he stood for a minute.

"Uh, bye, then", Sirius said, still slightly surprised.

"See you next year", Ariella grinned, before turning away to follow her friends.

Making his way back to his own friends, Sirius smiled to himself, he was leaving Hogwarts with one more friend than he had left with the last time.

 **##**

Sirius entered the Black house, following his mother and Regulus. They had just gotten home from King's Cross station.

"Sirius!", barked his mother, "Go upstairs with both the trunks and put them in your rooms".

"But of course, I live serve the Noble House of Black", he mumbled sarcastically, copying Kreacher's favourite line.

"And make it snappy!" she called after him as he lugged his and Regulus's trunks up the stairs.

"Screwy old hag", he said under his breath.

Sirius stopped on the top landing between the two rooms. He opened his door and rolled in his trunk. Sirius crossed the landing and slammed open Regulus's and threw the trunk in unceremoniously, spreading assorted clothes everywhere. He was about to slam the door shut when he stopped. Spread out on the floor and pasted on the walls were newspaper cut-outs. They all had headlines like 'He Who Must Not Be Named is at Large" or "Dark Powers Coming into Play".

Sirius gaped at the walls covered in the disturbing evidence. He now saw the extent of his brother's plans. All that Regulus had told him that afternoon in the snow had been true. Without thinking, Sirius ripped one of the news clippings off the wall, scrunched it into a ball and threw it out the door and across the landing.

He stood quietly, his quick anger turning to sadness. He shut the door behind him with the feeling of really giving up on Regulus. Little did he know, that next time he stood in that small room, with the news cut-outs strewn everywhere, the world would be a very different place, he would have a very different life, and Regulus Black wouldn't have set foot in there in years.

##

Nothing particularly horrid came up until Wednesday evening. Sirius had been putting up with snide remarks and rude comments for a few days know, and his resolve was starting wear thin. Sirius walked into the drawing room to collect his Motor Cycle Maintenance Manual, which he had left there earlier. He stopped suddenly when he saw Regulus and both parents sitting in there, talking animatedly about something.

"And then, you know what Macnair said?" asked Regulus, "He said 'I'm just putting this Mudblood in her rightful place."

Sirius felt his heart drop. Regulus had been there, at the attack. He had been watching.

"Oh, yes. Too right son", said Sirius's father.

"That's not their rightful place", Sirius said through gritted teeth.

"What?" asked Sirius's mother, the three of them had just noticed him standing in the doorway.

"I said that's not anyone's rightful place!" he said loudly.

"Sirius! When will you understand that these Mudbloods are beneath us of pure blood?" Sirius's father exclaimed, half laughing at his son's apparent idiocy.

"I SAID THAT IS NO-ONE'S RIGHTFUL PLACE!" Sirius shouted at them. He didn't know what it was, maybe he was still upset about seeing Mary struggling in the dirt, gasping for air, maybe it was because his last time with his family had been so terrible, or maybe it was because he didn't have a brother anymore, but he had snapped, "LYING FACE DOWN IN THE DIRT, IN PAIN OF TORTURE IS NOT THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ANYONE! MUGGLE-BORNS ARE TWICE THE PEOPLE YOU ARE! EVEN YOUR RIGHTFUL PLACE IS NOT LIKE THAT! THAT'S TOO GOOD FOR ANY OF YOU! YOU DESERVE A CELL IN AZKABAN! WERE IT'S COLD AND THE SOULLESS DEMENTORS MAKE YOU RELIVE YOUR WORST NIGHMARES!"

"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK TO US LIKE THAT!" yelled his father.

"THAT'S IT! I'M DONE!" screeched his mother, a hysterical madness in her eyes, "SEE THIS!"

She pointed her wand at the tapestry on the wall and blasted a dark fire out of her wand at the place where Sirius's name and date of birth was, leaving only a smouldering hole.

"GOOD, IT'S OFFICIAL! I'M DONE HERE TOO!" with that Sirius raced from the room.

Upstairs, he reefed his door open, grabbed his not yet unpacked trunk and started throwing things in at random; shoes, books, scraps of old paper, anything he might need.

"Sirius don't go!" said Regulus.

Regulus was at the door, his grey eyes looked worried. Sirius stopped and looked at Regulus, and he saw the same boy who he had played with in the square outside on sunny afternoons as a young child. His brother.

"Please, don't leave", he asked again.

Sirius wondered why Regulus cared, he hadn't any other time he had left the house. Then Sirius realised that Regulus knew he meant to leave for good this time. His brother knew him too well.

"Come with me", Sirius said quietly.

"I can't", Regulus stated, "You know it."

"See you then", Sirius stood up with his trunk.

"You could stay", Regulus blocked the door.

"I can't", Sirius said simply, pushing past his brother.

He made it to the stair case, he could hear his mother coming. He turned to look at Regulus, with his slight build and dark hair. In another reality, he could have been just like Sirius.

"Just know, though, that I tried to save you- I really did."

Sirius descended the staircase for what he was sure would be the last time. He only half hurried, it was somehow like he wanted to hold on to the bannister for one second longer. But after he passed the Elf heads on the wall, and made it to the entrance way, he dropped his hand from the wood.

"YOU'RE NO SON OF MINE!" screamed his mother as he walked out the front door.

He ran out onto the dark street, the rain pattered on his leather jacket. He looked back were his former house should have been, but it was hidden once again. He knew now, that he was free, and he was never going back to number twelve Grimmauld Place.


End file.
